Memphis Minnie

Genres:	Blues
Descriptive "tags":	blues • delta blues • female vocalists • classic blues • folk
Decades Active:	1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	Wikipedia

Biography

Lizzie Douglas, 3 June 1897, Algiers, Louisiana, USA, d. 6 August 1973, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Raised in Walls, Mississippi, Memphis Minnie learned banjo and guitar as a child, and ran away from home at the age of 13 to play music in Memphis; she worked for a time with Ringling Brothers Circus. When in Mississippi, she played guitar with Willie Brown, and in the 20s made a common-law marriage with Casey Bill Weldon. However, she was with Joe McCoy (under the pseudonym Kansas Joe) by the time of their joint recording debut in 1929. Her guitar playing had a strong rhythm, coupled with the ragtime influence common among the Memphis musicians, and her singing was tough and swaggering. ‘Bumble Bee’ was a hit, and Joe and Minnie recorded extensively, both together and separately; their guitar duets were among the finest in blues. Apart from songs about sex and relationships, Minnie sang about her meningitis (calling it, with gallows humour, ‘Memphis...

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