Featured Artist Of The Week...

Bertha "Chippie" Hill was one of the better classic blues singers of the 1920s, and was one of the few singers of her generation to make a full-fledged comeback in the 1940s. One of 16 children, she started working in 1916 as a dancer before she became better known as a singer. She was given the nickname "Chippie" because of her young age and her small size early in her career. She toured with Ma Rainey's Rabbit Foot Minstrels and went on to become a solo performer on vaudeville for a long period. She first recorded in November 1925 for Okeh Records, backed by the cornet player Louis Armstrong . After working steadily in the Chicago area until 1930 (including touring with Lovie Austin), she eventually left music to raise seven children.Hill occasionally sang during the next 15 years (including with Jimmie Noone) but mostly worked outside of music. She was rediscovered by writer Rudi Blesh in 1946, working in a bakery. She was back again in 1950, but was run over by a car and killed in New York at the age of 45.