Beverly Watkins, a rare woman among blues guitarists, who cleaned homes when music did not pay her enough and did not record her first solo album until she was 60, died Oct. 1 in Atlanta. She was 80. Her son and only immediate survivor, Stanley Watkins, said the cause was a heart attack that had been preceded by a stroke. Watkins called her music lowdown, stomping blues and complemented it with crowd-pleasing antics into her 70s playing her electric guitar on her back and behind her head, sliding across the stage. When she sang, it was often with a growl. Shed been doing all that since the late 1950s, but she wasnt a star because shed been a sideman most of her career, playing with bands that didnt have hits, Brett J. Bonner, editor of Living Blues magazine
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