Memphis Minnie was easily one of the most influential, talented, and innovative blues musicians ever to record; period. She and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were “pioneers of the electric guitar,” being among “the first to use a National resonator guitar and one of the first to plug it in” (Johnson, 2007, p. 49). Throughout her prolific career, she recorded nearly 100 records (Garon & Garon, 2014). In the foreword to Woman with Guitar, Jim O’Neal (2014) noted that while Minnie’s recognition has grown significantly since the book’s original publication in 1992, there remains a dearth of comprehensive documentation on her career and analyses of her songs relative to her significance in the blues (Garon & Garon, 2014, p. 14). She was an exceptional guitarist, singer, and songwriter who influenced generations of musicians, including Precious Bryant, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Mance Lipscomb.
Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglas, but her family affectionately called her “Kid” (Obrecht, 2019). While conflicting birth dates exist, 1897 is most often cited. Though she claimed Algiers, Louisiana, as her birthplace, census records suggest she was born in Mississippi (Obrecht, 2019). Regardless of the exact location, sources agree she grew up in rural Mississippi near Memphis, a region saturated with blues music (Blount, Jr., 2003; Strachwitz, 1964).
Her musical journey began at age seven when she learned to play on a one-string cigar box guitar (Obrecht, 2019). At thirteen, she ran away from home and began busking at W.C. Handy Park under the name "Kid Douglas" (Hite, 1983; Obrecht, 2019). She played at house parties, fish fries, and juke joints, eventually joining the Ringling Brothers’ Circus around 1916 and touring with them for nearly five years (Hite, 1983; Retman, 2020).
Image Source: John Tefteller's bluesimages.com
By the time of her first recordings in the late 1920s, Memphis Minnie was a seasoned musician, songwriter, and singer (Kernodle, 2004). Her professional recording career began in 1929 when a Columbia Records talent scout saw her and Wilbur “Kansas Joe” McCoy playing for tips in a Beale Street barbershop. A Columbia Records executive named the duo “Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie” (Obrecht, 2019). Their first recording session on June 18, 1929 included the songs “When the Levee Breaks” and “Bumble Bee Blues,” the latter of which became an immediate success (LaNey, 1989; Obrecht, 2019).
Shortly after their first session, Minnie and McCoy married and moved to Chicago in 1930, where she lived for the next 27 years (Strachwitz, 1964). The duo continued recording throughout the 1930s including for “three of the major race series labels” Decca, Victor, and Vocalion Records (Obrecht, 2019; Retman, 2020). Minnie also performed on the Red Hot and Low Down radio program in the early 1930s (Garon & Garon, 2014).
Minnie’s partnership with McCoy ended around 1935 (Retman, 2020). She then worked as a solo artist and collaborated with Ernest “Little Son Joe” Lawler, whom she later married, in the late 1930s (Obrecht, 2019). Her adaptability helped her thrive during a time when blues styles were shifting after the Great Depression brought the recording industry to a standstill. As recording technology advanced, Minnie experimented with amplification and electric guitars, contributing significantly to the advent of urban blues (Garon & Garon, 2014; Retman, 2020). Additionally, her use of technology to shape her sound allowed her to sit at the intersection of vaudeville blues women and country blues men, occupying both worlds, while also serving as a bridge to the new post-war / Chicago blues (Retman, 2020).
Langston Hughes attended one of Memphis Minnie’s performances at the 230 Club in Chicago on New Year’s Eve in 1942. In a Chicago Defender article, he described her electric guitar playing as “scientific sound” (Hughes, 1995, p. 195). Retman (2020) later aptly dubbed her a “mechanical-age songster” (p. 84). Minnie’s prowess was undeniable; she famously defeated both Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar contest. Broonzy remarked, “Memphis Minnie can pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I ever heard” (Obrecht, 2019).
“H-826, Memphis Minnie," in Duncan P. Schiedt Photograph Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. (https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.1323/ref1956?t=W&q=memphis+minnie) [Used with permission]
Memphis Minnie received numerous accolades during her lifetime and posthumously. She was among the first twenty performers inducted into the W.C. Handy Awards Hall of Fame in 1980 and won the top female vocalist award in the first Blues Unlimited Reader’s Poll in 1973 (Garon & Garon, 2014). She was also inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Her career flourished in styles typically dominated by male performers, ranging from country blues to Chicago blues (Blount, Jr., 2003).
Memphis Minnie’s career ended in 1962 when a stroke left her partially paralyzed (Strachwitz, 1964). She spent her final years in Memphis and passed away on August 6, 1973.
Her legacy lives on through numerous memorials, including markers on both the Mississippi and Memphis Blues Trails. Her influence on blues music is profound; she recorded over 200 sides and left a mark on the genre that few artists, regardless of gender, have matched (LaNey, 1989). Memphis Minnie’s innovation, versatility, and skill ensured that she would be remembered as one of the defining figures of blues music.
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Ortiz Gaitan, C. (Director). (n.d.). Memphis Minnie “Complete recorded works 1935-1941-Vol 1” [Streaming]. YouTube. Retrieved November 2, 2024, from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxWibFr0wiLRdqiFndBjKVp1ydRBpru2
Spencer, O. (1939, August 1). Notes on Minnie Ward (Page 1). https://cdm16818.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/IllWriters/id/9513
Awards winners and nominees: Memphis Minnie. (n.d.). Blues Foundation. Retrieved June 29, 2024, from https://blues.org/awards/
Memphis Minnie. (n.d.). The Mississippi Blues Trail. Retrieved November 4, 2024, from https://msbluestrail.org/blues-trail-markers/memphis-minnie
Memphis Minnie. (2015, October 18). Memphis Music Hall of Fame. https://memphismusichalloffame.com/inductee/memphisminnie/
Memphis Minnie Mississippi Blues Trail. (2024, May 31). Historical Marker Database. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=233857
Moore, T. D. (n.d.). Memphis Minnie. Mount Zion Memorial Fund. Retrieved November 4, 2024, from http://www.mtzionmemorialfund.org/p/memphis-minnie.html
Reed, E. (2006, June 18). Memphis Minnie McCoy. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14639079/memphis_minnie-mccoy
Staff Report. (2007, September 25). Memphis Minnie honored with Miss. Blues Trail marker. Picayune Item. https://www.picayuneitem.com/2007/09/memphis-minnie-honored-with-miss-blues-trail-marker/
"The Lomax Digital Archive provides free access to audio/visual collections compiled across seven decades by folklorist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) and his father John A. Lomax (1867–1948)."
Archival Materials related to Memphis Minnie: Commentary by Big Bill Broonzy on Memphis Minnie, Lonnie Johnson, and Blind Blake
"The Blues Archive at the University of Mississippi acquires and preserves blues and blues-related materials in a variety of formats for scholars and blues fans alike. With thousands of sound recordings, photographs, videos, books, periodicals, newsletters, research collections, memorabilia, and more the Blues Archive houses one of the largest blues collections in the world."
Archival materials for Memphis Minnie can be found in the following collections within The Blues Archive:
"The Keith Ferguson collection includes artifacts, manuscripts, and audio-visual materials from the childhood and professional career of the internationally respected musician."
Archival materials for Memphis Minnie are located in the Audio-Visual Materials series (Items 13 & 28).
Finding aid: https://txarchives.org/ttusw/finding_aids/40005.xml
"Collection of over eight hundred sound tape reels, including blues and jazz music and interviews with musicians; several hundred photographs of prominent blues and jazz musicians, primarily from the 1960s and 1970s; manuscript materials about blues and jazz musicians, arranged by the name of performer; and articles, drafts, and notes written by Pete Welding, journalist, record producer, and historian of blues music."
Search within the finding aid to uncover the long list of content items related to Memphis Minnie.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af021010
By Rosetta Reitz, Duke University - Rosetta Reitz, Duke University Jazz Archive, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Rosetta Reitz (1924-2008) was a business owner, stock broker, university lecturer, [. . .] writer, [and] founder and owner of Rosetta Records, a company most prominent in the 1980s that was dedicated to re-releasing historic recordings by female jazz and blues musicians."
Archival materials for Memphis Minnie are located in the Writings (Box 12), Photographs (Box 17), and Reference Materials Series (Box 37).
Find aid: https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/reitzrosetta_aspace_ref723_an7
"Bruce Bastin is a folklorist, author, and managing director of Interstate Music, a record label specializing in blues, jazz, R&B, country, western swing, Latin American, and world music. The collection consists of Interstate Music production masters, reference sound recordings compiled by Bastin, and sound recordings related to Bastin's book on American music publisher Joe Davis. The collection also contains documentation found with select sound recordings. Documentation consists mostly of tape logs, memos, letters, and photocopies of Interstate Music album artwork."
The collection includes Open Reel Audio of Memphis Minnie's World of Trouble, Hot Stuff, and My Girlish Days.
Finding aid: https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20428/
"Robert Gregg Koester (1932-) is the founder and owner of Delmark records, which is the oldest jazz and blues independent record label in the US. Koester grew up in Wichita, Kansas during the big band era of jazz music."
The collection consists of copies of 78 rpm records. Search the finding aid to locate Memphis Minnie.
Finding aid: https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv875914?q=memphis%20minnie
Blues Classics (BC-1). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation. Released 1964. View Liner Notes
Original Jazz Library (OJL-6). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation. Released 1964. View Images and Archives
Blues Classics (BC 13). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono. Released 1967. View Liner Notes
Sunflower (ET - 1400). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono. Released 1968 (UK). View Images
Flyright Records (LP108/FLY LP 108). Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono, Compilation. Released 1973. View Images
Magpie Records (PY 1806). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono. Released 1977 (UK). View Images
Flyright Records (FLY-585). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Remastered, Mono. Released 1982 (UK). View Liner Notes
MCA Records (MCA-1370). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation. Released 1983. View Liner Notes
Travelin' Man (TM 803). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono. Released 1984 (UK). View Images
Old Tramp (OT - 1207). Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono. Released 1987 (Netherlands). View Images
Portrait (RK 44072). Format: CD. Released 1988 (UK). View Liner Notes
Columbia (CK 46775) / Legacy (CK 46775). Format: CD, Mono Compilation. Released 1991. View Liner Notes
RST Records (BDCD-6008). Format: CD. Released 1991 (Austria). View Liner Notes
Columbia (CK 65212). Format: CD, Compilation. Released Oct. 7, 1997. View Liner Notes
Catfish Records (KAT CD158). Format: CD. Released 2000 (UK). View Liner Notes
Aim Records (AIM 0018 CD). Format: CD. Released 2000. View Liner Notes
Ruf records (RUF 1110)(RCD 10322). Format: CD, Compilation. Released Oct. 25, 2005. View Liner Notes
Featured songs include Drunken Barrelhouse Blues; You Can't Rule Me; Caught Me Wrong Again; I Don't Want That Junk Out Of You; Soo Cow Soo; Ain't No Use to Tell On Me, Chickasaw Train and more.
Featuring Memphis Minnie, Geeshie Wiley, Elvie Thomas, and Jesse Mae Hemphill.
Featured songs include Me & My , Big Road Blues, Spoonful, Delia, Hard Love, Will this How be Blessed, and more.
Memphis Minnie, Blind Blake, Rev. Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Willie McTell, and Rev. Robert Wilkins.
Featured songs include Hesitation Blues and When the Levee Breaks, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, and more.