FULLER UP HOME GRIM REAPER PAGE CAUSES OF DEATH SEARCH BY NAME GET IN TOUCH SHAMEFUL DISCLAIMER    Fuller Up The Dead Musician Directory         Kathryn Jewel Thorne AKA      Katie Webster        September 5, 1999        Age 60   Heart Failure             OBITUARY  BIOGRAPHY   LINKS

OBITUARY 

'Swamp Boogie Queen' Katie Webster dies                     LEAGUE CITY, Texas (AP) -- Katie Webster,                 the blues singer known as "The Swamp Boogie                 Queen" for her frenetic, two-fisted piano style, has                 died. She was 63.                  Ms. Webster died of heart failure Sunday at her                 home in League City, just southeast of her native                 Houston.                  Born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, Ms. Webster first                 learned to play gospel and classical music.                  Her parents, wary of secular influences, kept the                 piano locked up so she couldn't play unsupervised.                 But, thanks to an old Philco radio she smuggled                 into her bedroom, Ms. Webster was exposed to                 the earthly, earthy tunes they discouraged.                  As a teen, she moved in with more permissive                 relatives in south Louisiana and, by age 15, became                 one of the most requested studio musicians in the                 region. Her music appears on more than 500                 singles cut in the 1950s and 1960s.                  A young Otis Redding discovered her playing with                 her band in 1964. She toured with him until his                 death in a 1967 plane crash that might have killed                 her, except she couldn't fly because she was                 pregnant.                  Devastated, Ms. Webster essentially stopped                 performing until the early 1980s, when she took                 Europe by storm. She also became a favorite in the                 U.S. blues festival circuit and recorded on the                 Chicago-based Alligator Records label with the                 likes of Robert Cray and Bonnie Raitt.                  A 1993 stroke severely damaged her eyesight and                 use of her left hand, but she continued to appear at                 select festivals.                  An Associated Press reviewer, critiquing                 February's "Deluxe Edition," a compilation album                 featuring past recordings, wrote that Ms. Webster                 "combined a soulful voice with a rollicking piano                 style to reign as Queen of the Boogie."  ~  Canoe           The piano pounding "Swamp Boogie Queen," Katie Webster,   passed away on Sunday (Sept. 5). She was 60.    Born Kathryn Thorne, Webster became a popular session   player and recorded her own sides starting in the late 1950s.   In 1964, Otis Redding chose Webster to be his opening act,   a job that lasted three years.    After making a comeback with live performances in the early   1980s, Webster began recording for the Alligator label. She   released three albums on Alligator before suffering a stroke in   1993. ~AMG   Billboard           Pianist Katie Webster Dead At 63                      Blues singer/pianist Katie Webster died                      Sunday of heart failure at her home in                      League City, Texas. She was 63. Webster                      recorded prolifically for Excello and                      Goldband during the '50s and '60s and                      was a member of Otis Redding's band in                      the late '60s. Her '80s and '90s albums for                      Arhoolie and Alligator Records displayed                      her talents as a boogie-woogie, R&B,                      swamp-pop, blues, and Southern soul player. She continued to                      perform after suffering a debilitating stroke in 1993. Services                      are scheduled for Sept. 14 in Houston.                                                              -Chris Morris, L.A.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

All-Music Guide    A piano-pounding institution on the southern Louisiana swamp blues scene during the late '50s and  early '60s, Katie Webster later grabbed a long-deserved share of national recognition with three recent Alligator albums before a 1993 stroke temporarily shelved her.   Poor Kathryn Thorne had to deal with deeply religious parents that did everything in their power to stop their daughter from playing R&B. But the rocking sounds of Fats Domino and Little Richard were simply too persuasive. Local guitarist Ashton Savoy took her under his wing, sharing her 1958 debut 45 for the Kry logo ("Baby Baby").   Webster rapidly became an invaluable studio sessioneer for Louisiana producers J.D. Miller in Crowley and Eddie Shuler in Lake Charles. She played on sides by Guitar Junior (Lonnie Brooks), Clarence Garlow, Jimmy Wilson, Lazy Lester, and Phil Phillips (her gently rolling 88s powered his hit "Sea of Love").   The young pianist also waxed some terrific sides of her own for Miller from 1959 to 1961 for his Rocko, Action, and Spot labels (where she introduced a dance called "The Katie Lee"). Webster led her own band, the Uptighters, at the same time she was spending her days in the studio. In 1964, she guested with Otis Redding's band at the Bamboo Club in Lake Charles and so impressed the charismatic Redding that he absconded with her. For the next three years, Webster served as his opening act!   The 1970s were pretty much a lost decade for Katie Webster as she took care of her ailing parents in Oakland, CA. But in 1982 a European tour beckoned, and she journeyed overseas for the first of many such jaunts. The Alligator connection commenced in 1988 with some high-profile help: Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, and Kim Wilson all made guest appearances on The Swamp Boogie Queen. The lovably extroverted boogie pianist encored with Two-Fisted Mama! and No Foolin' before suffering the stroke. -- Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide

 

 LINKS

Blues Gallery Photos