Chicago woman's mission is to document history of female blues legends

CHICAGO (CBS) – There's no way one can listen to the music of blues and not feel it.

CBS 2 recently met a woman who tells the stories of blues greats past, present, future and female. It's her mission and her passion.

It's also what makes Lynn Orman one of Chicago's Hidden Gems.

"The music of the blues is real life," Orman said. "This music just grabbed my soul."

Orman doesn't sing the blues, but she tells the stories of the women who do.

"There's a lot of joy in the music," she said.

She's been a writer, a radio and TV host, a record company owner and she's also an advocate.

"We want women [to] not always have to take the back part of the stage," she said.

Norman is the curator of a traveling exhibit, called "Women of the Blues: A Coast to Coast Collection." The work of more than 20 photographers chronicles the careers, challenges and triumphs of more than 100 women.

She calls one particular wall the "Legacy Wall."

"These are all the daughters or granddaughters of very significant blues musicians," she said. "Most of them came from the delta, but they came here and they migrated to Chicago for a better life."

Life might have been better, but it still wasn't easy. Take the story of Mary Lane.

"She started singing the blues when she was just a teenager," Orman said.

Decades later, Lane was 82 and still singing the blues, but couldn't get a record company to sign her. So Orman and her business partner had an idea.

"Allen Winkler and I started Women of the Blues Records to put Mary Lane on the record," Orman said.

Lane, now 88, is still going strong, but how did Orman find success? Where did it all begin?

"I didn't find the blues. The blues found me," she said.

It came during a casual conversation with a neighbor who just happened to be blues great Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater.

"He was this giant of a man with this infectious smile," Orman said. "And he asked me if I would be interested in doing publicity for his new album."

That's when she began to combine her longtime love of writing with her new love of the blues. Then, she had an epiphany.

"I'm like, 'Wow, I keep writing about all these men, but I'm not writing about the women," Orman said.

She added, "So I started to branch out and learn more about the women of the blues."

Those women included Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor, whom Orman called her inspiration.

"She was not only about the blues music, but she was about sisterhood," Orman said. "She was about education, really important to her. Read your contracts. Know what you're doing."

Orman made it her mission to support the careers and tell the stories of the women of blues, but she said there's still so much more to be done.

"I was looking at the top 50 records the other day and there were only six women out of 50," she said. "So I'm like, wow we just have to keep on pushing and let their voices be heard."

Orman said she's looking forward to curating more specialized collections. One will be at Chicago's Studebaker Theater for the month of June in coordination with the play "Queens of the Blues." She'd love to find a permanent home for the collections so more people could learn more about the great blues trailblazers.

To learn more about Orman's exhibit, visit WomenOfTheBlues.com .