Geeshie Wiley
| Geeshie Wiley | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Lillie Mae Scott (possible) |
| Also known as | Lillie Mae Wiley |
| Born | c. 1908 Louisiana, U.S. (possible) |
| Died | After mid-1950s Texas or Oklahoma, U.S. (possible) |
| Genres | Blues, country blues |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Labels | Paramount |
| Associated acts | Elvie Thomas |
Geeshie Wiley was an American country blues singer and guitar player who may have been born Lillie Mae Scott (c.1908 – after mid-1950s). She recorded six songs for Paramount Records, issued on three records in 1930 and 1931. According to the blues historian Don Kent, Wiley "may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician". Little is known of her life, and there are no known photographs of her.
In March 1930, Wiley traveled with the singer and guitarist Elvie Thomas from Houston, Texas to Grafton, Wisconsin, to make recordings for Paramount Records. Wiley recorded "Last Kind Words Blues" and "Skinny Leg Blues", singing and accompanying herself on guitar, with Thomas providing additional guitar accompaniment. Thomas also recorded two songs, "Motherless Child Blues" and "Over to My House," with Wiley playing guitar and singing harmony. Some sources suggest that in March 1931 Wiley and Thomas returned to Grafton and recorded "Pick Poor Robin Clean" and "Eagles on a Half."
Steve Leggett at Allmusic states, "Wiley's vocal on "Last Kind Word Blues" is by turns weary, wise, angry, defiant, despairing, even wistful, and is simply one of the best performances in early country blues."
It is believed that fewer than ten original copies of Wiley's records have survived.
Little is known about Wiley, and the few details of her life provided by various sources are inconsistent. "Geeshie" (sometimes spelled "Geechie" or "Geetchie") was probably a nickname.
There have been several conjectures about her life. The musician Ishmon Bracey, a contemporary of Wiley's, stated that she came from Natchez, Mississippi, and was romantically linked with the Delta blues musician Papa Charlie McCoy. It has also been suggested that in the 1920s she worked in a medicine show in Jackson, Mississippi, and that she may have married Casey Bill Weldon after his divorce from Memphis Minnie. The singer and bass player Herbert Wiley, of Oxford, Mississippi, stated that she was a cousin on his father's side and that her family had farmed in South Carolina; his father had told him that she died in 1938 or 1939, and he believed that she may have been buried in the family burial plot in Oxford. The musicologist and genealogist Eric S. LeBlanc suggested that her name was Wadie May Wiley and that she was born near Oxford in 1906.
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