Blues With The Girls 1982

As best I can tell, the history here is that these three fine vocalists went to Europe on a tour where they would use a local group at each stop. Someone very smart realized that the inclusion of Hubert Sumlin as musical director would help smooth out the musical bumps, not to mention adding one of the greatest blues guitarists on the planet. We have no evidence whether or not this worked at all their stops on the tour, but it sure as hell worked in Paris! In particular, pianist Michael Carras plays his ass off!

"Sarah Streeter was raised in Chicago, Illinois, from early childhood, where she sang in gospel choirs in South Chicago churches. At age 14, she began singing blues at the Morgan's Lounge Club, and in the 1970s she played with musicians such as Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, The Aces, Junior Wells, Johnny Bernard, and Erwin Helfer.

Her experience playing with Sunnyland Slim led to her first solo release, a single released on his label, Airways Records. Teamed with Zora Young and Bonnie Lee in 'Blues with the Girls', Sarah toured Europe in 1982 and recorded an album in Paris, France. From 1989 she performed with a group called The Big Time Express. Since 1993 she has recorded for Delmark Records."

"Zora Young (born January 21, 1948, West Point, Mississippi, United States) is an American blues singer. She is a distant relative of Howlin' Wolf.

Young's family moved to Chicago at age seven and sang gospel at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church. As an adult she began singing blues and R&B music, and over the course of her career played with Junior Wells, Jimmy Dawkins, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Professor Eddie Lusk, and B. B. King. Among those she has collaborated with on record are Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim, Mississippi Heat, Paul DeLay, and Maurice John Vaughan.

In 1982, she toured Europe on the bill with Bonnie Lee and Big Time Sarah in 'Blues with the Girls', and then recorded an album in Paris, France. She was later cast in the role of Bessie Smith in the stage show, The Heart of the Blues. By 1991 she had recorded the album, Travelin' Light, with the Canadian guitar player, Colin Linden.

Young has toured Europe more than thirty times, in addition to appearances in Turkey and Taiwan. She was the featured performer at the Chicago Blues Festival six times."

"Bonnie Lee - She was born Jessie Lee Frealls in Bunkie, Louisiana, United States, and raised in Beaumont, Texas.

After learning to play the piano as a child, her mother refused to let her join gospel singer Lillian Glinn on tour. Instead she did later tour with the Famous Georgia Minstrels, meeting both Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Big Mama Thornton.

In 1958 she moved to Chicago, and chose the stage name of Bonnie Lee, working as both a dancer and singer. Two years later she signed a recording contract with J. Mayo Williams' Ebony Records label. The downside was Williams' insistence on her being billed as Bonnie "Bombshell" Lane on her first single, "Sad and Evil Woman." It was a name she disliked but, after the single failed to sell, she returned to the Chicago jazz and blues nightclubs. She was later billed as Bonnie Lee Murray, using her then husband's surname.

In 1967 Lee first appeared on the bill with the pianist Sunnyland Slim, and their working arrangement included residencies at a number of Chicago clubs. This led her, at the end of the 1970s, to release further singles via the Slim owned record label, Airway Records. After suffering health problems at the end of that decade, Lee then enjoyed a long professional partnership with Willie Kent. For many years the combination of Lee backed by Willie Kent and the Gents, became a regular feature in B.L.U.E.S., a noted Chicago club. There she sang her most famous numbers; "I’m Good" and "Need Your Love So Bad."

In 1982, and partnered with Zora Young and Big Time Sarah as 'Blues with the Girls', Lee toured Europe and cut a joint album in Paris, France. In 1992 Lee guested on Magic Slim's album, 44 Blues, with John Primer. Finally in her own name, in 1995 Delmark Records released, Sweetheart of the Blues, and three years later another collection, I'm Good, was issued.

In September 2006, after years of poor health, Lee died at the age of 75."