Flooding and Bessie Smith

As for the terrible floods this Christmas, this woman,  rightly called the Queen of the Blues and backed by the great James P Johnson, says it. "I woke up this morning, couldn't even get out of my door."

I used to think the song was a picture of the Great Mississippi floods of 1927, but the song was recorded before that took place. On tour, Smith saw the flooding in and around Nashville on Christmas Day (!) 1926, when the Cumberland River rose to 56 feet above normal, still a record, aslthough Nashville has long been prone to floods.

Wherever, whenever, she universalises it, as great artists do, and she can awaken our sympathy and our empathy.