Alberta Adams is still Detroit's' Queen of the Blues

Alberta Adams

Singer Alberta Adams, known as Detroit's Queen of the Blues, is featured in an interesting article by Metro Times music writer Brett Callwood, who recently sat down with Alberta and her manager, RJ Spangler, at her Detroit home.
Click here to read Callwood's article.
I have seen Alberta perform several times, most recently in 2011 at the Southfield Public Library. Although she was in her 90s and in a wheelchair, she put on a very entertaining show, exhibiting the vibrancy of a much younger person. My favorite moment from the evening was when she was performing an uptempo tune. She obviously thought people should be dancing, so she pointed to two people in the front of the audience and said "dance!". They most certainly did. Who could turn down a request from the queen?

Alberta Adams

Alberta was honored this spring at the Detroit Pub Music Room’s Sunday Steak & Blues Series. It was titled “To Alberta With Love.”
If you want to show her some love yourself, check out one of her fine albums recorded when she was in her 80s. She recorded two CDs for the now defunct Cannonball Records label and then moved to Detroit-based Eastlawn Records. Her third record with Eastlawn, "Detroit Is My Home" (2008), features collaborations with pianists Mark "Mr. B" Braun, Al Hill and the late Ann Rabson (Saffire). Thornetta Davis also appeared on the CD. Years earlier, Alberta also recorded for the Chess, Savoy and Thelma (Gordy) labels.   

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