The Chicago rockabilly scene has been fairly dormant for the past several years, though touring acts such as Big Sandy and Deke Dickerson still attract huge local audiences. Along with Tammi Savoy, singer Bailey Dee is among the vanguard of those making the scene exciting again. Dee’s musical background is fairly diverse, and though she often plays with progressive-folk band Jonas Friddle & the Majority, her own music is solidly in the roots-rock vein. Dee gets it right in a lot of ways: she emphasizes the R&B side of things, and she can sing with scary conviction. She demonstrated both at the Hideout’s tribute to Andre Williams earlier this year, where she sang one of Williams’s most salacious numbers, “Let Me Put It In.” Though no one will ever outdo Williams on his own turf, Dee went at it full throttle—where others tiptoe, she stomps. Give her a little time and she could easily rival the late, great Nick Curran, an expert at fusing blues and rockabilly. Dee is a classy lady in every sense of the term, but when it comes to her music, she can get sweaty and impolite with the best of ’em. v
Bailey Dee lights a fire in Chicago’s rockabilly scene
