'No underrecognized Chicago blues artist deserves a spot in the series more than talented and groundbreaking singer Lil Green, who achieved stardom in the 1940s but has been largely forgotten since her premature death in 1954.' | Steve Krakow
Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
No matter how Green got her start, by the mid-30s she was performing in popular Chicago nightclubs. She teamed up with blues guitar god Big Bill Broonzy, and their repertoire also included jazz, gospel, and pop. As the Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring her puts it, “Green exuded youthful sweetness and charm yet retained a sultry, streetwise allure in her high-pitched delivery. Upon meeting her, one writer described her as ‘disarmingly down to earth.
Broonzy, Henry, and Knowling backed Green on the 14 Bluebird records she released between 1940 and 1942, as well as at innumerable gigs in southern country juke joints. Green soon outgrew this scene, though the lore that surrounded her suggests she had other reasons to leave it: according to R.H. Harris, leader of legendary gospel group the, she eventually did prison time because of her involvement in a nightclub killing during this period.
All the same, the success of Green’s own “Why Don’t You Do Right?” allowed her to graduate from gigs in small clubs to tours with bigger bands. As World War II ended, RCA retired the Bluebird imprint, so Green’s singles in 1946 and ’47 appeared with “RCA Victor” on their hub labels. She shifted to horn-heavy backing groups with a more pop-jazz sound—trumpeter Howard Callender, also a romantic partner of Green’s, played on the majority of those RCA singles.
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