Ready for the Lady with Diamond Teeth
#514 / Flood Capsule: 2015
Ten years ago this week, a steamy, cloudless afternoon gave the Family Flood the perfect excuse to sport shades and hats and look appropriately gritty and badass for their latest date with the ghost of blues legend Diamond Teeth Mary.
The occasion was the sixth annual Diamond Teeth Mary Blues and Arts Festival in downtown Huntington, celebrating a remarkable native daughter with whom The Flood had a long history.
Floodsters Charlie Bowen and Dave Peyton had been on hand, for instance, in August 2000 when Mary’s family honored her last request; she wanted her ashes scattered on the railroad tracks at Huntington’s Heritage Station, the very place she began her journey 85 years earlier.
A Huntington Story
Born Mary Smith on Aug. 27, 1902, in Huntington, Mary McClain carved out a legendary career in blues music that spanned nearly a century.
Her early life in Huntington was marked by hardship. At age 13, she fled an abusive home by disguising herself as a boy and hopping a train, launching a life on the road that began with circus performances and medicine shows.
Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, Mary honed her craft in minstrel shows, eventually sharing stages with icons like Billie Holiday, Ray Charles and Duke Ellington. In the 1940s, she adopted her famous moniker after having diamonds from a bracelet implanted in her teeth. Though she settled in Florida later in life, her heart remained tethered to Huntington.
The Festival
By 2009, Huntington was hosting an annual blues and arts festival to honor Mary on the weekend nearest her birthday.
Click the button below for a sample of the tunes that The Flood selected for its portion of that August 2015 festival. On stage with Bowen that afternoon were Doug Chaffin, Sam St. Clair, Michelle Hoge, Randy Hamilton and Paul Martin.