Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women. From left to right: Andra Faye, Gaye Adegbalola and Ann Rabson.

There’s a certain aesthetic quality to Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women that helped them get plenty of attention starting out.

They were a trio of ladies — middle-aged ladies, actually — all singing and performing acoustic blues on multiple instruments. For a while, that’s all anyone could write about — until they opened up their ears.

“And then it was like, oh yeah, we play good music too,” says guitarist/harmonicist/vocalist Gaye Adegbalola.

After 25 years, six studio albums and numerous performances that included group playing alongside legends like B.B. King, Koko Taylor and Ray Charles, Adegbalola, along with pianist/guitarist/vocalist Ann Rabson and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Andra Faye, are saying goodbye to Saffire with a farewell tour, which comes to St. Joseph at 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Missouri Theater.

Throughout Saffire’s career, which got its start in Fredericksburg, Va., back in 1984, the group developed signature characteristics that stem from the members’ appreciation of the original “uppity” blues women singers of the ‘20s and ‘30s like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. The trio displayed skillful blues chops with sassy and soulful singing, bawdy and playful lyrics, biting humor and confident self-assurance from a female angle.

“‘Uppity’ doesn’t come from being snooty but about standing up for yourself,” Adegbalola says. “What we play is decidedly from a woman’s perspective, and we are all feminists so that makes the content a bit different.”

While Saffire was going strong, so were each of ladies’ work on other projects and solo efforts. And ultimately, the desires to pursue separate creative endeavors led to the amicable split of Saffire — but not without making one final statement.

The trio’s last studio album, “Havin’ The Last Word,” a mix of blues covers and originals, showcases the ladies sharing the spotlight and Saffire’s multiple sides, whether it’s Rabson’s interpretation of Bessie Smith’s double entendre-laced “Kitchen Man,” the aching country blues of Faye’s “Blue Lullaby” or Adegbalola’s swampy slide guitar on the empowering “Bald Headed Blues” inspired by her battle with cancer.

After that album was released, the farewell tour followed. Christina Lund, executive director for the Performing Arts Association, says the organization has been trying to book Saffire for years and jumped at the chance to get the group in St. Joe for the farewell tour. And after getting acquainted with Saffire’s music prior to its arrival, she realizes what all the fuss is about.

“It automatically puts you in a good mood,” Lund says. “In listening to the music now, it’s just infectious. Their energy, it’s definitely something you want to be apart of.”

Their upcoming show also will feature a special opening act with jazz pianist and Missouri Western graduate Roddy Barnes, who worked with Adegbalola on two of her solo projects. But by the time Saffire strikes the last note together on the Missouri Theater stage and in every stop that follows, it’s impossible for them to move on without realizing what they captured together.

“It’s been such a wonderful, wonderful ride and it’s really bittersweet,” Adegbalola says. “There’s lots of goodness. We’ve been all over the country and we’re still having a ball.”

Tickets for Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women range from $10 to $40. For more information, call 279-1225 or go to www.saintjosephperformingarts.org.