There's a world of music you enter when you open the Bessie Smith door. Our playlist showcases some of of Smith's best songs, as well as music from her influences and inheritors.

Bessie Smith was a singer who naturally attracted superlatives. And no wonder, because she was a genius of her art, by common consensus the greatest female blues singer who ever lived.

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of.

Denise Lee (left), plays Bessie Smith and Marisa Diotalevi plays Janis Joplin in "The Empress and The Pearl" at Theatre Too in the basement of Theatre Three in Dallas Wednesday April 6, 2016.

The eerie tandem between Smith’s life and the songs she recorded fuels a fascinating investigation into the almost prophetic relationship between the singer and the song, between the music and ...

The most popular female recording artist of the 1920s, singer Bessie Smith was nicknamed “Empress of the Blues” for good reason.

Only three of the twelve sides in the Bessie Smith Album are devoted to Broadway songs: Muddy Water, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of. How Bessie Smith Influenced A Century Of ...

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of.

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of.