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Michigan Heritage Awards
Arts
Nomination Form (PDF)
Arts Nomination
Form (word)
Community
Leadership Nomination Form (PDF)
Community Leadership
Nomination Form (word)
^ MHA Awardees List ^
Photo by Don McGhee,
courtesy of R.J. Spangler
Alberta Adams
2010 awardee, Detroit (Wayne County), blues
Alberta Adams is known in Detroit and nationwide as the Queen of Detroit
blues. Alberta was born Roberta Louise Osborne in Indianapolis in 1917.
She began performing as a dancer at an early age and, when the vocalist
at the Club B and C in Detroit fell ill, she stepped in as a singer. By
1945 she was performing on tours with such well-known national artists as
Duke Ellington, T-Bone Walker, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson and,
when in Detroit she worked with Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris. In the
1960s Adams made Detroit her home and appeared regularly in local nightclubs.
When she and the Detroit Blues Review performed with guitarist and vocalist
Johnnie Bassett at the 1994 Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival, her work garnered
renewed interest. She went on more tours in the U.S. and recorded the 1997
album Blues Across America: The Detroit Scene. In Michigan, she
has also performed at the National Folk Festival, Festival of Michigan Folklife,
and Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing, Michigan. Adams has five
CD releases and her Detroit is My Home was recognized with a Detroit Music
Award for outstanding blues/R & B recording in 2009. The Detroit Blues
Society honored Alberta with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
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