Nellie Tiger Travis

A fiery singer whose music encompasses both contemporary blues and Southern soul, Nellie Tiger Travis was born in the early '60s in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Travis was primarily raised by her grandmother, who was a minister and sang in the church. Several other members of Travis' family were singers and musicians, and she began singing in church services when she was five years old. In her teens, Travis participated in beauty pageants, and was homecoming queen when she graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in 1979. While Travis considered a career in acting, her love of music won out, and she moved to Los Angeles in hopes of launching her career. There, Travis sang with Top 40 groups, but grew disillusioned with the politics of the music business. In 1992, she left Los Angeles for Chicago, where she thought she would be living temporarily as she looked after her ailing mother. Travis ended up staying, and in 1995 she was booked for a show at the well-known Windy City blues venue Kingston Mines