BATH – The Chocolate Church Arts Center will present Saffire The Uppity Blues Women at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25.

The trio, which has six albums, plays acoustic blues. These women tear into their material with passion, dedication and originality, according to a spokesman for the center. The members are Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola and Andra Faye.

Adegbalola contributes guitar, harmonica and vocals. Raised in Virginia, she became a biochemical researcher, a bacteriologist and later an eighth-grade science teacher who was honored as Virginia Teacher of the Year in 1982. After hours, Adegbalola and her father ran a theater-arts group. She began taking guitar lessons from Rabson in 1977. Four years ago, she received a W.C. Handy Award for Song of the Year for her composition “The Middle Age Boogie Blues.” She is the mother of industrial/gothic musician Juno Lumumba.

Rabson (piano, guitar, kazoo and vocals) was born in New York and grew up in Ohio. She began studying guitar when she was 17; at the age of 18 she began playing professionally. In 1971, she moved herself to Fredericksburg, Va., where she performed professionally full-time. In 1978, she took a job as a computer analyst while continuing to perform at night. In the early 1980s, she and Adegbalola began to play gigs together.

The day her daughter graduated from college was the day Rabson quit her day job and returned to playing music full-time.

Andra Faye (fiddle, mandolin, acoustic bass, guitar and vocals) is from Indianapolis, where she pursued a career as a registered nurse. She’s been playing music since the sixth grade, performing in a variety of local bands. She joined The Uppity Blues Woman band as a full member in 1992, and in a short amount of time became a proficient bass player.

Tickets are $20 for members of the arts center, $25 in advance and $30 at the door. They can be purchased by calling arts center, 442-8455.

For more information about the arts center, go to chocolatechurcharts.org.