Memphis Blues
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Memphis Blues is a city-blues style built from Beale Street showmanship, rural Mississippi guitar approaches, jug-band rhythm, ragtime syncopation, and later electric club bite. It can be acoustic and loose or electric and polished, but it usually has a sharp rhythmic strut, conversational vocals, and a practical entertainment feel born from streets, parks, theaters, and bars.
History
Memphis became a major blues crossroads as Delta, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi musicians moved through Beale Street, medicine shows, Handy-era publishing, and later radio and recording studios. Furry Lewis, Frank Stokes, Memphis Minnie, Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band, Sleepy John Estes, and Gus Cannon defined the prewar city sound; after World War II, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Sun- and Duke-associated players pushed Memphis blues toward electric R&B, soul-blues, and rock and roll. The style's influence radiates through Chicago blues migration, rockabilly, Stax soul, and modern Beale Street revival culture.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- David Evans, Big Road Blues
- Samuel Charters, The Country Blues
- Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis
- AllMusic