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Xxxxxx Graná Louise Smith passed away June 12th, 2022

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Graná (Graa Nay) Louise Smith made her way
to Chicago in 1998 by way of Minneapolis and St. Paul where she
performed in blues and jazz clubs.

Age 69 (born in 1952 or 1953) she began her Chicago career
singing at Kingston Mines and Blue Chicago and quickly became an
established presence on the local music scene, adding such venues as
B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, Redfish and Buddy Guy’s Legends to her
itinerary. Only two years after arriving in the Windy City, she was able
to secure a coveted spot on the Chicago Blues Festival lineup.

She went back to the U.S. in 2016 after a period of
living in Marseille, and Nice in France and lived in
again in Chicago. She later moved to Ohio.

The secret of her success undoubtedly owed
much to the unique combination of her
commanding vocal abilities, her audience-
engaging personality and her rather unusual and
varied song-bag. Her repertoire any given night
might include classic blues. songs from the pre-
blues folk tradition, original compositions (often
with a touch of humour), and anything that she
felt an intense need to share with her listening
public.

Graná treated listeners to a a huge variety of
music from folk to funny to funk. Graná often
used a lively retelling of the ageless folk song
Stagger Lee to open her sets and added her own
compositions and covers like ‘Back Door Blues’ by
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's songbook, and ‘Hey
Joe’ a song with a long and rather murky history
before it was covered by Jimi Hendrix.

Graná, sometimes called Blues Kitty also sank
her teeth into Denise LaSalle's funk-tinged
‘Learning How to Cheat on You’, Etta James' ‘Wet Match’, Koko Taylor's ‘Queen Bee’ (a
reworking of Slim Harpo's ‘King Bee’) and Ann Peebles' eternal ‘I Can't Stand the Rain’.

She passed away from a stroke followed by cardiac arrest.

Graná once said, “The songs I choose tell my plight as a woman—period. Women of all races
identify and relate to me as an artist and as a woman trying to live in a male-dominated world.
Audiences get the hard gist of what I'm saying, nationally or internationally. It's all in the
delivery.”

Ian K McKenzie

Constructed from a range of sources