Memphis Minnie

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglas in 1897, probably in Tunica County, Mississippi, although she herself claimed to come from New Orleans. She was the eldest of thirteen children. She was given a guitar at the age of eight; by ten she could play the banjo and by eleven the guitar, and she was already playing at parties. In 1910 she ran away from home to Beale Street in Memphis. For years she played on street corners, and from 1916 to 1920 she toured the South with the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Music and breakthrough

In 1929 she began performing with her second husband, Kansas Joe McCoy. A talent scout from Columbia Records discovered them in front of a barber shop, where they were playing for dimes. In New York, Columbia gave them the names Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie. She later settled in Chicago, where she recorded prolifically for the producer Lester Melrose. She married Ernest Lawlars, known as Little Son Joe, who added a more rhythmic accompaniment to her guitar playing. In all, she recorded around two hundred songs, among them When the Levee Breaks, Me and My Chauffeur Blues, Bumble Bee and Nothing in Rambling.

Influence

Minnie was a guitarist, singer and songwriter who won herself an authoritative place on the stage as a woman. In 1933 she won a contest against Big Bill Broonzy in a Chicago nightclub. After the 1940s the tastes of the public changed, and she ended up with smaller labels. In 1957 she returned to Memphis with Lawlars, where she occasionally encouraged young blues musicians on the radio. She died in 1973.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• ?I Ain't No Bad Gal