RECORDING
ARTIST WANDA KING FOR BOOKING EMAIL WKBLUES@AOL.COM OR CALL 972-285-7222
It Was Love From The First Time I Heard The Blues Wanda King
the daughter of the late blues master Freddie King began singing at an
early age. She learned from the best. The King's home was always filled
with music and musicians of the era Howlin
Wolf, Albert King ,B.B.
King, Magic Sam, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie
Taylor, just to name a few. Her brother Fred Jr. formed a band in grade
school. Wanda was the vocalist and keyboardist, Fred Jr. was the bassman,
Carmen "Cookie" Mcgee (recording artist for JSP Records) was the
guitarist. The band won so many talent shows that competing in these
talent shows was no longer a challenge so they went professional. the
oldest member of the band was 11 years old. Their band played private
parties and made more money on Friday and Saturday than some folks could
earn in a week. " I was 8 years old when I attended my first R&B show at
the Regal Theater in Chicago IL. It was a Matinee all star revue show
featuring Freddie King ,Jackie Wilson,
Chuck Jackson, The Shirelles, Maxine Brown, Gene Chandler, and Redd Foxx
was the MC". She became serious about blues music as a teenager At age
fifteen she attended her first blues club show her father's gig.""I saw
and experienced first hand the power of the blues groove, the feeling
was hypnotic, it was intoxicating and it was a rush and I knew by the
end of that night I was hooked". She tried to convert her brother to R&B
and blues but he was into funk, rock, loud music and she didn't like
screaming her vocals over the band amped up volume, so she quit. Her
father began calling her up to the do background vocals or lead a song
when he performed locally. He realized that she was serious about the
business, so he began educating her on the do's and the don't and The Who and the what in the music business. All those early dreams of a
music career ended when Freddie King passed on Dec 28 1976. She was so
grief striven she stop performing professionally. Her attention turn to
helping her mother (who was devastated by her husband untimely death)
raise the other siblings. She went to college got a job continued to
write poetry and lyrics and was content for a while but gradually as
time began to slip into the future her need to perform professionally
was to strong to resist. The opportunity presented it self when she was
laid off from her day job. One door closes and another door opens. She
contacted some talented musicians She had seen perform locally Sonny
Collie and Robin "Texas Slim" Sullivan (who worked with Fred Jr.) told
them that she wanted to hire them to assist on her CD project they
agreed. Her first CD FROM A BLUES POINT OF VIEW recorded in the Fall of
2002. "I hired the best side available in the Dallas blues community. I
worked hard to re-establish myself as a serious blues vocalist.. I did a
quick step when I found that promoters would not invest in blues I
started promoting blues shows. My first shows included many of the local
blues bands. When I became President of the Freddie King Blues
foundation Inc. the foundation began bringing headliners Johnny Winter,
Edgar Winter, Smokin Joe Kubek and Bnois King, Little Charlie and the
Nightcats and others to Dallas. I now host a annual Bluesfest " Freddie
King Bluesfest"."