Charles Anderson (1883 – after 1937)[1] was an American vaudeville entertainer, singer and female impersonator, known as a pioneer performer of blues songs.
Born in either Snow Hill[2] or Birmingham, Alabama,[1] Anderson was an active vaudeville performer by 1909, when he played in Memphis, Tennessee.
He shared bills with Bessie Smith on several occasions, and by summer 1913 was known for his comedy and his performances of blues songs and "lullaby yodels", called by one reviewer "the Male Mockingbird".
Ethel Waters, long regarded as the first performer of the latter song, stated that she had first heard it sung by Anderson in Baltimore in 1917.
"[4] Although a favorite with black vaudeville audiences at the time, Anderson has tended to be dismissed as a curiosity by later critics because of his high voice and clear diction, which Abbott and Seroff say "conflict with modern tastes and stereotypes.