Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Modern-day music is heavily influenced by the artists that came before, such as they were influenced by those before them. And while many people point to jazz as being the forerunner to modern pop and rock music, they often fail to recognize the genre that influenced those jazz greats, that being the Blues.

On Thursday, May 18, musicians Kirsten Thien and Erik Boyd will be in the Main Library discussing the lives and careers of some of the most influential women of the Blues. In their program “Wild Women of the Blues: Origins of American Popular Music,” they will look at the likes of Ida Cox, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Billie Holliday, and Bessie Smith and how, even against a backdrop of oppression and segregation in the post-slavery era, these ladies were not only great entertainers but their unapologetically honest and sometimes bawdy or controversial lyrics inspired fearlessness and authenticity while thrilling crowds across America.

They will play select songs from these ladies’ 1920s and 30s catalogs as well as share a few of their own original contemporary Blues songs and discuss how the early Blues women still inspire music today—almost 100 years later!