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The ‘Queen of Bourbon Street’ Takes On NC Blues

WUNC News | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published October 27, 2017 at 11:40 AM EDT
Pat 'Mother Blues' Cohen is a Salisbury-based Blues singer who relocated to NC after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Courtesy of Pat Cohen
Pat 'Mother Blues' Cohen is a Salisbury-based Blues singer who relocated to NC after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Pat 'Mother Blues' Cohen is a Salisbury-based Blues singer who relocated to NC after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Credit Courtesy of Pat Cohen
Pat 'Mother Blues' Cohen is a Salisbury-based Blues singer who relocated to NC after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen started singing blues tunes as a young girl to entertain her parents’ friends at their home in Edison, New Jersey. She later worked for years in the casino industry and won casino talent competitions so often that she was banned from participating. 

Singer Pat "Mother Blues" Cohen talks with host Frank Stasio. She is joined by musicians Harvey Dalton Arnold, Darrell Young and Steve Newton to play live in our studio.

Cohen eventually earned the nickname the “Queen of Bourbon Street” for drawing large crowds into nightclubs in New Orleans. But when Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home, she sought new audiences and a new beginning in North Carolina.

Cohen connected with other musicians in the state through the Music Maker Relief Foundation and has now become a regular performer at The Bullpen in downtown Durham. Host Frank Stasiotalks with Cohen about resilience in the face of hardship and how music has helped her through major life transitions.

Cohen performs at The Bullpen Saturday, Oct. 28 and Friday, Nov. 24.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio