Katie Webster (born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, January 11, 1936 – September 5, 1999) was an American boogie-woogie pianist. She is acknowledged as one of the most important blues artists of her generation.
Until the 1980s this boisterous singer and pianist was known only to record collectors, as an obscure but prolific session musician behind Louisiana musicians on the Excello and Goldband record labels, such as Lightnin' Slim and Lonesome Sundown. Webster also played piano with Otis Redding in the 1960s, but after his death went into semi-retirement. But in the 1980s she was repeatedly booked for European tours and recorded albums for the German record label, Ornament Records. To balance these solo efforts, she cut You Know That's Right with the band Hot Links, and the album that established her in the United States; The Swamp Boogie Queen with guest spots by Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray.
Her latter fame got her spots at both the San Francisco Blues Festival and Long Beach Blues Festivals.
With a great sense of humor, she served a mixed menu of blues and R&B, epitomized by her song "Zydeco Shoes and California Blues", until she was compelled by a stroke to hang up the one and play no more of the other.
Webster died in League City, Texas in September 1999, from heart failure.
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