Fri 12 Jun 2026, St Laurence, Weymouth

Julia Titus is an actress, poet, singer and songwriter. Among her talents are the voice and verve to put over convincingly the songs of the great blues & vaudeville singer of the 1920s, Bessie Smith. Smith sang about the things her audiences were living and feeling, decades before hip-hop artists rapped about black working-class life. With uplifting lyrics both dark and humorous, Smith and her sister blues women advanced the revolutionary idea that black women's lives mattered. The phenomenal Ma Bessie, billed as the "Empress of the Blues", hit the big time a century ago. She recorded many discs with piano and trumpet backing. Here's a chance to hear that combination, with two of the best in the field, Mike Denham and Steve Graham.