Barbara Dane

Barbara Jean Spillman (May 12, 1927 – October 20, 2024), known professionally as Barbara Dane, was an American folk, blues and jazz singer, guitarist, record producer, and political activist. She co-founded Paredon Records with Irwin Silber. Jazz critic Leonard Feather described Dane as "Bessie Smith in stereo" in the late 1950s. Time wrote of Dane: "The voice is pure, rich ... rare as a 20-carat diamond" and quoted Louis Armstrong's exclamation upon hearing her at the Pasadena jazz festival: "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser!" On the occasion of her 85th birthday, The Boston Globe music critic James Reed called her "one of the true unsung heroes of American music."

Similar Artists

Dr. John

Tom Waits

Charles Sheffield

Nick Waterhouse

Elizabeth Cotten

Little Willie John

Mavis Staples

The Neville Brothers

Pete Seeger

Bobbie Gentry

Eli Paperboy Reed

Rose Mitchell

Otis Redding

The Commitments

James Hunter

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Booker T. & the M.G.'s

C.W. Stoneking

The James Hunter Six

Ike & Tina Turner

Barrett Strong

Fontella Bass

Etta James

Sam Cooke

The Shangri-Las

Dusty Springfield

Nancy Sinatra

Ray Charles

Marion Black