Alberta
Adams (c. 1920), born Roberta Louise Osborne, is a Detroit blues, jump
blues and Chicago blues singer born in Indianapolis, Indiana sometime in
the early 1920s. She was raised in Detroit, Michigan by a relative, and
got her break in the 1940s performing in a club on Hastings Street
amidst other artists like John Lee
Hooker. Soon after she landed a contract with Chess Records and
recorded alongside Red Saunders for the label. She found herself touring
with the likes of Duke Ellington, Eddie
"Cleanhead" Vinson and Louis Jordan, only to name a few. Her solo
career really did not lift off ground until the 1990s, when she landed a
contract with the now defunct Cannonball Records and recorded two albums
for them, 1999s Born With the Blues and 2000s Say Baby Say. Her latest
album is from 2004 titled I'm on the Move, done for the Eastlawn Records
label.