Hattie Hart (c. 1900 - after 1946) was an American

Memphis blues The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows a ...

singer and songwriter. She was active as a recording artist from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s. Her best known tracks are "I Let My Daddy Do That" and "Coldest Stuff in Town". She worked as a solo artist and as a singer with the

Memphis Jug Band The Memphis Jug Band was an American band (music), musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late-1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard (musical instrument), washboard, w ...

. Little is known of her life outside music. It was stated that "Hart wrote gritty songs about love, sex, cocaine and voodoo".

Career

Hart was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, around 1900. She first recorded with the Memphis Jug Band in 1928. She had a reputation for the parties that she hosted at this time. She also sang in the

Beale Street Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, t ...

area of Memphis, busking with various musicians, where she became one of the best-known performers. Hart's singing style has been compared to that of

Sara Martin Sara Martin (June 18, 1884 – May 24, 1955) was an American blues singer, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. She was billed as "The Famous Moanin' Mama" and "The Colored Sophie Tucker". She made many recordings, ...

. She has been described as a "marvellous, tough voiced singer". Her earliest recording with the Memphis Jug Band was a song she wrote, "Won't You Be Kind?" (1928), with blues dialect in the lyrics: "Now twenty-five cents a saucer, seventy-five cents a cup, But it's an extra dollar papa, if you mean to keep it up." Five recordings of Hart with the Jug Band between 1928 and 1930 are known to exist. She undertook a recording session of her own in September 1934, with Allen Shaw and one other musician, whom some blues historians believe was Memphis Willie B. Hart recorded fourteen tracks for

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

, only four of which were released at the time. Hart moved to Chicago, and it is believed she recorded there in 1938 under the name Hattie Bolten. It is not reported whether this was her married name or a pseudonym. After that, she disappeared from public attention, and no further details of her life are known. Hart's song "I Let My Daddy Do That" was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

by Holly Golightly on her 1997 album ''Painted On''.

Recordings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Hattie Year of birth missing Year of death missing Place of death missing African-American women singers American blues singers Memphis blues musicians Country blues singers People from Memphis, Tennessee Songwriters from Tennessee Victor Records artists African-American songwriters

Career

Recordings

See also

References