Join us in a conversation with Beareather Reddy, "Champion for the Blues"! A vocalist, songwriter, actress, producer, radio host, and founder and director of the Brooklyn Blues Society, she is passionate about the Blues and keeping the tradition alive in Brooklyn and beyond.
Sylvania, Georgia native Beareather Reddy – vocalist, songwriter, actress, producer and radio host – has been performing for over 40 years, establishing herself as a “Champion for the Blues.” She has brought her particular style of lilting vocals and storytelling to venues all over New York City and beyond, including The Cutting Room, Russian Samovar Room, For My Sweet, Sweetwater’s, Two Steps Down, The Duplex, Jazz966, Terra Blues, The Jalopy, Brooklyn Historical Society, and The Nostrand Social; she has been featured in festivals and events such as the Jazzy Jazz Festival, Briggs Farm Blues Festival, Bloomsburg, PA Blues Festival, Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival, 1st African American Music Festival in Kingston, NY, and the “Blues to Bop” Festival in Lugano, Switzerland. In 2016, she received the “Woman of Distinction” Award and was inducted in the New York Blues Hall of Fame the same year.
She has worked with great musicians such as Archie Shepp, Max Roach, Avery Sharp, Abdullah Ibrahim, Sheila Jordan, Jimmy Sigler, Gerry Eastman, George Gee & the Jump Jivers, Stanley Banks, Slam Allen and the Alexis Suter Band. She has appeared on “The David Letterman Show”, ABC’s World News and World News This Morning.
Ms. Reddy, producer of the Big Eyed Blues Festival and the Ocean Hill Folk Festival, has presented national and international blues performers to the community, such as Mississippi Blues legend Bobby Rush, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Alexis P. Suter Band, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Bill Sims, Solomon Hicks, Guy Davis, SaRon Crenshaw, Valerie June, Vinnie Knight, Regina Bonell, and others. She is the founder and director of the Brooklyn Blues Society which produces the Big Eyed Blues Festival, which recently had was held for its 12th year.