Althea
"You can't tell you're in a cage til you can't leave it."
Background
Althea grew up a poor girl in Memphis, TN. Her father left her family, and her mother became a shell of herself. Althea and her younger brother Marcus were raised by her uncle Richard instead. Her uncle played the guitar exceptionally well[1] and encouraged Althea to play as well.
Althea was discovered singing on the street for change at 13 by a white man who promised her fame and fortune. Originally she convinced herself that she was going to make money to help take care of Marcus, but Althea admits that she stopped thinking about him as time went on. Her brother was her only tie to Memphis after the death of her uncle. When Marcus passed away from an illness, she never returned.
After she left her contract at 25, she made a deal with the Devil. She became the best blues singer in the world, influencing the genre heavily by the way she played guitar.
However, the world soon began to not need blues music like it did before. Althea's fame and fortune faded until she was back how she started: a poor girl singing for dimes.