This Legend Released Her Debut Album at 60
Could she still rock? You better believe it!
(Thank you to my brother Arun for turning me on to this underground legend.)
Beverly Watkins was born in 1939. Her mother died when she was three months old, and she was raised first by her grandparents and then by a succession of aunts.
She was surrounded by her community's informal, untutored folk music, most of whom were poor sharecroppers. She received her first guitar around the age of eight.
She first heard an electric guitar played by the preacher at one of the churches she attended and was hooked on the sound. She performed her first electric guitar at 17 at her high-school talent show.
Watkins was forced by overcrowding to switch high schools and ended up under the watch of Clark Terry, the school’s band teacher, who had played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and in turn, taught Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, among others.
She joined a local barnstorming band led by Piano Red (also “Dr. Feelgood,” actual name William Perryman), and in her early 20’s, had the experience of touring nationally.
Eventually, she would share the stage with several major artists, including Eddie Tiger, the Inkspots, BB King, James Brown, and Ray Charles, but recording opportunities passed her by.
Music was still segregated most of her life, and Watkins was further limited by the industry’s lack of interest in female instrumentalists. She was told more than once, “Put that guitar down. You don’t need to be playing no guitar,” or variations thereof.*
Through the 70s and ’80s, she did manual labor, cleaning houses and offices to pay the bills while playing music at night. She spent time in the 80s and 90s as one of the house musicians at the Underground Atlanta, a live music hall, but it barely paid. By all accounts, she never felt any bitterness, always thanking God at the end of her sets for the opportunity to play music.
It was at the Underground that she was at last “discovered.” Watkins’ debut LP was published in 1999 when she was 60. This triggered a sudden surge of interest in her music, and she spent the next three years appearing by invitation at major blues and rock festivals around the U.S. and in Europe.
She released three more albums and continued touring until shortly before her death in 2019 at the age of 80. There are almost no extant recordings of her performances before 1999, but we have plenty of proof that in her 60s and 70s, she could still rock like few before or since. She remains practically unknown to most music fans, but top-level blues and rock musicians know who she was and cite her as an inspiration.
“Too Many Times” from “Don’t Mess with Miss Watkins” (2007).
The guitar lead, the vocals with a little growl thrown in, and the groove — this should have been a huge mainstream hit.
“The Blues is Alright with Me,” New River Blues Festival, North Carolina, 2011.
“Beverly Watkins is a 59-year-old who plays a red Mustang guitar behind her back like Jimi Hendrix.”
~Taj Mahal
This whole thing is mesmerizing, but watch for the ending when she plays the guitar behind her head.
…..
Sources:
* This quote has appeared in multiple interviews of Watkins or her colleagues, all of them describing the record executives’ skepticism about a female guitarist
“Unsung,” Watkins’ obituary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2019
New York Times obituary, October 8, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/arts/music/beverly-watkins-dead.html
“Beverly Guitar Watkins,” CD Baby, June 23, 2006
https://web.archive.org/web/20060623024624/http://cdbaby.com/cd/bwatkins
I can just imagine her thinking: “Oh...you’re gonna walk in front of my while I’m performing? Well, just watch this!” Amazing!