Geeshie Wiley was an American country blues singer and guitar player who recorded six songs for Paramount Records, issued on three records in April 1930. According to the blues historian Don Kent, Wiley "may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician". Little is known of her life, and there are no known photographs of her. She may have been born Lillie Mae Boone (November 14, 1908–July 29, 1950), later Lillie Mae Scott.

Recordings

In April 1930, Thomas also recorded two songs, "Motherless Child Blues" and "Over to My House," with Wiley playing guitar and singing harmony.

Steve Leggett at Allmusic states, "Wiley's vocal on 'Last Kind Word Blues' is by turns weary, wise, angry, defiant, despairing, even wistful, and is simply one of the best performances in early country blues."

Biographical uncertainties

{|style="width:28em;float:right;background:#D1EEEE;margin:0.5em 1em;padding:0.3em;"

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|“If Geeshie Wiley did not exist, she could not be invented: her scope and creativity dwarfs most blues artists. She seems to represent the moment when black secular music was coalescing into blues.”

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|<small>Don Kent, liner notes to Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927–35 (Yazoo CD 2007, 1994)</small>

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Little is known about Wiley, and the few details of her life provided by various sources are inconsistent. "Geeshie" (sometimes spelled "Geechie" or "Geetchie") was probably a nickname.

There have been several conjectures about her life. The musician Ishmon Bracey, a contemporary of Wiley's, stated that she came from Natchez, Mississippi, and was romantically linked with the Delta blues musician Papa Charlie McCoy. It has also been suggested that in the 1920s she worked in a medicine show in Jackson, Mississippi, and that she may have married Casey Bill Weldon after his divorce from Memphis Minnie.

Research by Robert "Mack" McCormick was developed and publicized by John Jeremiah Sullivan in The New York Times in 2014. Sullivan also spoke to a Houston musician, John D. "Don" Wilkerson, who claimed to remember Wiley and "implied that there was something funny about her background. He said that she'd been 'maybe Mexican or something.'”

In the documentary film Crumb (1994), by Terry Zwigoff, the artist Robert Crumb plays Wiley's recording of "Last Kind Words Blues" and sits down to listen as a sequence of his cartoons is shown.

"Last Kind Words Blues" has been covered by several other artists:

  • David Johansen and the Harry Smiths covered it on their 2002 album Shaker. Johansen also sang a portion of "Last Kind Words" in the movie Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2003).
  • C. W. Stoneking included a faithful cover of the song on his 2006 album Mississippi & Piedmont Blues 1927–1941.
  • Dex Romweber Duo released a version featuring Jack White, on White's vinyl-only label, Third Man Records.
  • Ransom Riggs used the song in his video "Talking Pictures", in which he talks about vintage photographs.
  • Rhiannon Giddens, of the traditional black music group Carolina Chocolate Drops, sang the song on her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn.
  • The Kronos Quartet performed an arrangement of the song at their fortieth anniversary concert, broadcast in 2013.
  • "Last Kind Words Blues" appeared on the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album Raise the Roof, released in November 2021.

"Pick Poor Robin Clean" is performed in the film Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler. Geeshie Wiley's original version of "Pick Poor Robin Clean" and its cover for the film are featured on the Sinners original motion picture soundtrack.

Discography

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! Date || Credit || A-side || B-side || Record label

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| March 1930 ||Geeshie Wiley ||"Last Kind Word Blues" || "Skinny Leg Blues" || style="text-align:center;"|Paramount Records 12951

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| March 1930 ||Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley ||"Motherless Child Blues" || "Over to My House" || style="text-align:center;"|Paramount Records 12977

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| March 1931 || Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas ||"Pick Poor Robin Clean" || "Eagles on a Half" || style="text-align:center;"|Paramount Records 13074

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References

  • Cordeiro, AnneMarie (2011), "Geechie Wiley: An Exploration of Enigmatic Virtuosity", Arizona State University
  • Geeshie Wiley page at Lady Plays the Blues Project