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| Memphis blues | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1910s–1930s,Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
TheMemphis blues is a style ofblues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in theMemphis area, such asFrank Stokes,Sleepy John Estes,Furry Lewis andMemphis Minnie. The style was popular invaudeville andmedicine shows and was associated withBeale Street, the main entertainment area in Memphis.
W. C. Handy, the "Father of the Blues", published the song "The Memphis Blues" in 1909 and this was the first blues to be written down.[1] In lyrics, the phrase has been used to describe adepressed mood.[2]
In addition to guitar-based blues,jug bands, such asGus Cannon's Jug Stompers and theMemphis Jug Band, were extremely popular practitioners of Memphis blues. The jug band style emphasized the danceable, syncopated rhythms of earlyjazz and a range of other folk styles. It was played on simple, sometimes homemade, instruments such as harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards,kazoo,guimbarde and jugs blown to supply the bass.
AfterWorld War II, as African Americans left the Mississippi Delta and other impoverished areas of the South for urban areas, many musicians gravitated to the blues scene in Memphis, changing the classic Memphis blues sound. Musicians such asHowlin' Wolf,Willie Nix,Ike Turner, andB. B. King performed on Beale Street and inWest Memphis and recorded some of the classicelectric blues,rhythm-and-blues androck-and-roll records for labels such asSam Phillips'sSun Records. Sun recordedHowlin' Wolf (before he moved to Chicago),Willie Nix,Ike Turner,B. B. King and others.[3] Electric Memphis blues featured "explosive, distorted electric guitar work, thunderous drumming, and fierce, declamatory vocals."[4] Musicians associated with Sun Records includedJoe Hill Louis,Willie Johnson andPat Hare.[5][6]
His first venture, the Phillips label, issued only one known release, and it was one of the loudest, most overdriven, and distorted guitar stomps ever recorded, 'Boogie in the Park' by Memphis one-man-band Joe Hill Louis, who cranked his guitar while sitting and banging at a rudimentary drum kit.
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