Would she be doing Bluegrass Today?

Bessie Smith and Leadbelly
were among Janis's earliest
musical influences, but she
also knew the music of
traditional white performers
like the Carter Family. 

Janis Joplin would've been 68 today!
Bessie Smith and Leadbelly were among Janis's earliest musical influences, but she also knew the music of traditional white performers like the Carter Family. On her first trip to California, in 1963. she played the Autoharp and sang Carter Family songs in the North Beach area coffeehouses around San Francisco.


In 1965 Janice sang and played autoharp with the Waller Creek Boys, a trio from Austin. While performing with the Wallers, Joplin began to truly develop the harsh but alluring vocal style that gained her fame. The small lineup included R. Powell St. John, who wrote songs for a rock and roll band called the 13th Floor Elevators, a Texas group whose primitive garage-band style engendered a cult following through the years. In the spring of 1966, the group asked Joplin to become a member, and she seriously considered the offer. But she was diverted from this course when Chet Helms who'd influenced her to go to San Fransisco in 1963 got back in touch with her, encouraging her to return to San Francisco. There was a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company , he told her, and they needed a female singer.
-------------------
Rare Recording: The first recording of Me & Bobby McGee in the studio.  This is just Janis and her guitar. Is raw and unedited - features studio conversations at beginning. Enjoy!

Wikipedia
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin number 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004,  and number 28 on its 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.