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July 30, 2025
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Calgary Bluesfest at the King Eddy
Gaye Adegbalola, an award-winning musican, songwriter, educator and activist, will bring her delightful Wild Women Do Get the Blues multi-media presentation to the stage. Gaye traces the history of blues women from the 1920s to today. She shares video and/or audio clips from Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday, from Rosetta Tharpe to Big Mama Thornton, from Etta Baker to Etta James and many others. She illuminates how the history of working class black women is documented in blues lyrics. Musically, she highlights the many vocal techniques (wails, syncopation, phrasing, growls, etc.) that are used that give drama and immediacy to the performances of blues women. This presentation runs 1 1/2 to 2 hours. However, it can be presented as a full length course with in-depth information and more listening experiences.
Gaye Todd was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She graduated as valedictorian of the then-segregated Walker-Grant High School. She finished Boston University with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked as a technical writer for TRW Systems, a biochemical researcher at Rockefeller University, and a bacteriologist at Harlem Hospital. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Media (with a concentration in photography) from Virginia State University.
In the early ’70s, she began her teaching career. She was an educator in the Fredericksburg City Public School system for 18 years, and honored as Virginia State Teacher of the Year in 1982. Throughout her teaching career, she directed Harambee 360º Experimental Theater. She was able to creatively use performance as a tool to assist black youth in gaining confidence as they struggled with identity issues during the spread of “integration.”
During her teaching career, Ms. Adegbalola moonlighted as a musician. By maintaining the blues legacy, she now sees herself as a contemporary griot – keeping the history alive, delivering messages of empowerment, ministering to the heartbroken, and finding joy in the mundane.
As a founding member of Saffire - the Uppity Blues Women (1984-2009), Gaye became a full-time performer. She has toured nationally and internationally, and has won numerous awards including the prestigious Blues Music Award (formerly the W.C. Handy Award – the Grammy of the blues industry).
Adegbalola has 16 recordings in national distribution, including 6 on her own label, Hot Toddy Music. Gaye composes, sings and plays acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and harmonica.
A dynamic speaker and a natural teacher, Gaye Adegbalola can engage, provoke, and inspire just about any audience. Her lectures and workshops cover such topics as The History of Women In Blues, Songwriting, Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs, and Gay Rights versus Civil Rights, among them.
Gaye Adegbalola continues to work diligently for ways to improve the human condition in her daily life. In the music she composes, she provides a voice for those who have been marginalized by society. With her unique writing style, she is often able to find humor in the pain which, in turn, empowers her listeners to live – and not just survive.
