Annetta Washington doesn't use her given name professionally, and most people have never heard it. Everyone follows the advice of her signature tune, "THEY CALL ME COTTON CANDY", and that they do.
Cotton Candy was a founding member and helped to organize the Kansas City Blues Society, and served as the original secretary during her three year tenure on the board. Today she still remains associated with the Society. She also has the distinction of being the first female blues artist to be inducted into the Elder Statesmen of Jazz. One can always find Cotton on stage somewhere doing what the blues are all about...living as well as performing them. "That's the true bedrock of the blues," Cotton says. "Living them."
Cotton comes from a religious and musical background. At age eight she was playing the piano for her minister/father's church, while her mother played piano in the local clubs. Her blues career began with she and two friends going to jam sessions in the Baghdad Club at 37th & Broadway in Kansas City. She would sing the two Dinah Washington songs that she knew weekend after weekend. Today she writes her own material by herself or in collaboration with her band.
Her present band, SO MANY MEN, is her third band. Cotton comments on the band, "You keep on working til you get what you want." .
Cotton Candy and So Many Men were recently honored by Mayor Emanuel Cleaver and the Kansas City City Council when they unanimously resolved and proclaimed April 14 as Annetta "Cotton Candy" Washington Day. This resolution becomes a permanent record in Kansas City music history.
Cotton Candy's CD, "THEY CALL ME COTTON CANDY" is already enjoying rave reviews across the country. To quote the Lare Bear, "Cotton Candy sings the blues with her whole heart, because she sees the blues in life."
No comments:
Post a Comment