Various Artists - Aint Gonna Hush: The Queens of Rhythm & Blues (2015)

From the mid-'50s to the early '60s, R&B belonged not just to men with guitars, but to women who sang with hungry voices on stages and in studios across the US. Their roots were planted in the blues of Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, Ida Fox and Bessie Smith, the gospel of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the jazz of Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. Their legacy lies in the recordings collected on Ain't Gonna Hush by journalist (Mojo, Record Collector) and R&B authority Lois Wilson. Selected because of their collectability and popularity on the club scene, the 76 tracks on the 3 CD set Ain't Gonna Hush include contributions by crowned queens of soul Etta James and Aretha Franklin, and other luminaries like Big Maybelle, Ruth Brown, Little Esther, LaVern Baker and Betty Everett. But lesser-known names are also well represented, whose recordings, like most of the songs collected here, sold poorly, but fetch huge prices today. Their lack of success was not due to ability, performance or quality of songwriting; every artist here (including Kentucky-born rockabilly musician Joyce Harris) shouts, screams and hollers as if their lives depend on it, every song is perfectly crafted. But due to bad luck, lack of promotion or simply the fact that with a market flooded with choice, the competition was tough and these 45s fell through the cracks. Here those unfortunate turns of fate are redressed with a collection that compiles the forgotten alongside the famed. Ain't Gonna Hush reasserts the eminence of revered voices and proposes the coronation of a larger cast of R&B Queens.