MEMPHIS MINNIE
(June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973)
Memphis Minnie was the most significant female country blues singer to emerge during the early blues era. She is credited as being one of the first blues artists -- male or female -- to use the electric guitar, preceding Muddy Waters' use of the instrument by a year. Memphis Minnie's style of guitar playing reflected how she lived her life--hard-driving, passionate, and contrary to what was expected of women at the time. Although she made numerous recordings over the course of a career which spanned three decades, none of them captured the raw energy of the live performances that earned her a place next to other female blues greats like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Fortunately, the power of her musical style lives on through the many well-known blues performers influenced by this dynamic musician, including Brewer Phillips, Big Momma Thornton, and Koko Taylor, as well as Rock & Roll artists such as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and the Rolling Stones.
Minnie, who also went by the names Texas Tessie, Minnie McCoy, and Gospel Minnie, was born Lizzie Douglas on June 3, 1897, in Algiers, Louisiana, a city located near the mouth of the Mississippi River, across from the old slave docks in New Orleans. Minnie was the first of thirteen children born to Abe and Gertrude Douglas, who were Baptist sharecroppers. In 1904, Minnie moved with her family to Walls, Mississippi, located just south of Memphis. Soon after the move, Minnie's parents gave her a guitar for her birthday. She quickly learned how to play her guitar and began entertaining at parties in her neighborhood, picking up the nickname "Kid Douglas." When she got a little older, "Kid" often snuck into Memphis, where she sang and played in parks and on the street corners around town for tips, meeting other musicians and getting her first taste of the early Memphis blues scene.
In the mid-1910s, Minnie joined the Ringling Brothers Circus and traveled throughout the South, entertaining crowds with her music. Eventually, Minnie quit the circus and moved to the Bedford Plantation in Mississippi. There she spent several years "woodshedding" with a guitar and mandolin player, Willie Brown, who had at one time played with both Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. According to the Worcester Phoenix website, guitarist Willie Moore, who played with Minnie and Willie Brown said, "Wasn't nothing he could teach her. Everything Willie Brown could play, she could play, and then she could play things he couldn't play."
Minnie eventually returned to Memphis, and was already tough and street-wise by the time she established herself as part of the Beale Street blues scene, an environment that had the reputation of being rough and somewhat seedy, in which only a woman of extraordinary strength and resourcefulness could survive. As quoted in the book Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie Blues, one observer said, "Any men fool with her she'd go right after them right away. She didn't take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she'd use it." Economic necessity dictated Minnie's close proximity to street life as she subsidized her income with prostitution, charging the relatively large sum of $12 for her services. Minnie also gained a reputation for partying and gambling.
For several years, Minnie was a member of the Memphis Jug Band and recorded with several artists. In 1929, Minnie was discovered by a talent scout from Columbia Records and recorded her first song, "Bumble Bee," under the name of Memphis Minnie, along with her second husband, the guitarist Kansas Joe McCoy (her first husband was guitarist Casey Bill Weldon). The recording brought the pair enough recognition to move on to Chicago, the hub of the blues scene, where Minnie would live for the next twenty-five years. Besides being a woman in a male-dominated music scene, Minnie literally "stood out" from other musicians by playing lead guitar while standing, at a time when everyone else played their guitars sitting down. She also tried new styles of music, new picking styles, and new instruments. Minnie was the first to record with what came to be known as the "classic" 1950s blues combo: electric guitar, piano, bass, and drums. It has also been noted that Minnie was among the first to play the electric guitar in 1943, at least one year before Muddy Waters did. Writer Langston Hughes described her performance in an article about her in the January 9, 1943, Chicago Defender, noting, "She grabs the microphone and yells, 'Hey now!' Then she hits a few deep chords at random, leans forward ever so slightly on her guitar, bows her head and begins to beat out...a rhythm so contagious that often it makes the crowd holler out loud....All these things cry through the strings on Memphis Minnie's electric guitar, amplified to machine proportions--a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill."
Minnie proved that she could hold her own with her male peers during energetic guitar contests where the winner was decided by the intensity of applause from the audience. Competing sometimes for just a bottle of whiskey, Minnie took on blues artists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Sunnyland Slim, and Muddy Waters. She often won, although she sometimes picked an opportune moment during these contests to lift her skirt in order to increase the applause.
Unfortunately, Minnie was never recorded playing her characteristic hard-driving electric sound. Minnie, like many other African-American blues artists, was essentially controlled by the impresario Lester Melrose, who handled all the details of the recording business for most of the "race record" labels during that era. Melrose instructed his musicians to record a toned-down version of the blues, a formulaic approach that became known as the Melrose Sound, the Bluebird Beat, the Melrose Mess, or the Melrose Machine. Even Minnie's recordings for other labels such as Decca failed to capture her spirited approach to the blues. However, Minnie's willingness to teach and nurture other young musicians ensured that her style was passed on to the next generation of blues artists.
In addition to watering down her music, the record labels prevented Minnie from reaping the economic benefits of her success. One of her protégés, Brewer Phillips, conveyed that Minnie claimed to have been "messed around in the music" and gave him the advice, "You can learn to play, but don't let them take your money." In 1958 Minnie and third husband Little Son Joe returned to Memphis, and lived in poverty. Aside from an occasional live radio spot, Minnie was no longer performing; her last performance was at a memorial for her friend and fellow musician, Bill Broonzy, in 1959. She had a stroke in 1960, Joe died in 1961, and shortly thereafter Minnie suffered another debilitating stroke which left her confined to a wheelchair for the last thirteen years of her life. Her sister, Daisy, cared for Minnie during her remaining years. Sadly, the woman who contributed so much to the early blues scene was ill and destitute at the end of her life. However, word of her predicament spread through the music community. Several artists held benefits to raise money for her care and the magazines Living Blues and Blues Unlimited helped to spread the word about Minnie's need, generating monetary support from fans.
Memphis Minnie died August 6, 1973, in Memphis. She is buried in New Hope Cemetery in Walls, Mississippi, in an unmarked grave. Posthumously, Blues World described Minnie's 1934 recording, Early Rhythm & Blues, as "the seminal electric sound guitar, bass, piano, drums which eventually cohesed into the style heard round the world." She was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, in 1980.
Minnie, who also went by the names Texas Tessie, Minnie McCoy, and Gospel Minnie, was born Lizzie Douglas on June 3, 1897, in Algiers, Louisiana, a city located near the mouth of the Mississippi River, across from the old slave docks in New Orleans. Minnie was the first of thirteen children born to Abe and Gertrude Douglas, who were Baptist sharecroppers. In 1904, Minnie moved with her family to Walls, Mississippi, located just south of Memphis. Soon after the move, Minnie's parents gave her a guitar for her birthday. She quickly learned how to play her guitar and began entertaining at parties in her neighborhood, picking up the nickname "Kid Douglas." When she got a little older, "Kid" often snuck into Memphis, where she sang and played in parks and on the street corners around town for tips, meeting other musicians and getting her first taste of the early Memphis blues scene.
In the mid-1910s, Minnie joined the Ringling Brothers Circus and traveled throughout the South, entertaining crowds with her music. Eventually, Minnie quit the circus and moved to the Bedford Plantation in Mississippi. There she spent several years "woodshedding" with a guitar and mandolin player, Willie Brown, who had at one time played with both Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. According to the Worcester Phoenix website, guitarist Willie Moore, who played with Minnie and Willie Brown said, "Wasn't nothing he could teach her. Everything Willie Brown could play, she could play, and then she could play things he couldn't play."
Minnie eventually returned to Memphis, and was already tough and street-wise by the time she established herself as part of the Beale Street blues scene, an environment that had the reputation of being rough and somewhat seedy, in which only a woman of extraordinary strength and resourcefulness could survive. As quoted in the book Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie Blues, one observer said, "Any men fool with her she'd go right after them right away. She didn't take no foolishness off them. Guitar, pocket knife, pistol, anything she get her hand on she'd use it." Economic necessity dictated Minnie's close proximity to street life as she subsidized her income with prostitution, charging the relatively large sum of $12 for her services. Minnie also gained a reputation for partying and gambling.
For several years, Minnie was a member of the Memphis Jug Band and recorded with several artists. In 1929, Minnie was discovered by a talent scout from Columbia Records and recorded her first song, "Bumble Bee," under the name of Memphis Minnie, along with her second husband, the guitarist Kansas Joe McCoy (her first husband was guitarist Casey Bill Weldon). The recording brought the pair enough recognition to move on to Chicago, the hub of the blues scene, where Minnie would live for the next twenty-five years. Besides being a woman in a male-dominated music scene, Minnie literally "stood out" from other musicians by playing lead guitar while standing, at a time when everyone else played their guitars sitting down. She also tried new styles of music, new picking styles, and new instruments. Minnie was the first to record with what came to be known as the "classic" 1950s blues combo: electric guitar, piano, bass, and drums. It has also been noted that Minnie was among the first to play the electric guitar in 1943, at least one year before Muddy Waters did. Writer Langston Hughes described her performance in an article about her in the January 9, 1943, Chicago Defender, noting, "She grabs the microphone and yells, 'Hey now!' Then she hits a few deep chords at random, leans forward ever so slightly on her guitar, bows her head and begins to beat out...a rhythm so contagious that often it makes the crowd holler out loud....All these things cry through the strings on Memphis Minnie's electric guitar, amplified to machine proportions--a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill."
Minnie proved that she could hold her own with her male peers during energetic guitar contests where the winner was decided by the intensity of applause from the audience. Competing sometimes for just a bottle of whiskey, Minnie took on blues artists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Sunnyland Slim, and Muddy Waters. She often won, although she sometimes picked an opportune moment during these contests to lift her skirt in order to increase the applause.
Unfortunately, Minnie was never recorded playing her characteristic hard-driving electric sound. Minnie, like many other African-American blues artists, was essentially controlled by the impresario Lester Melrose, who handled all the details of the recording business for most of the "race record" labels during that era. Melrose instructed his musicians to record a toned-down version of the blues, a formulaic approach that became known as the Melrose Sound, the Bluebird Beat, the Melrose Mess, or the Melrose Machine. Even Minnie's recordings for other labels such as Decca failed to capture her spirited approach to the blues. However, Minnie's willingness to teach and nurture other young musicians ensured that her style was passed on to the next generation of blues artists.
In addition to watering down her music, the record labels prevented Minnie from reaping the economic benefits of her success. One of her protégés, Brewer Phillips, conveyed that Minnie claimed to have been "messed around in the music" and gave him the advice, "You can learn to play, but don't let them take your money." In 1958 Minnie and third husband Little Son Joe returned to Memphis, and lived in poverty. Aside from an occasional live radio spot, Minnie was no longer performing; her last performance was at a memorial for her friend and fellow musician, Bill Broonzy, in 1959. She had a stroke in 1960, Joe died in 1961, and shortly thereafter Minnie suffered another debilitating stroke which left her confined to a wheelchair for the last thirteen years of her life. Her sister, Daisy, cared for Minnie during her remaining years. Sadly, the woman who contributed so much to the early blues scene was ill and destitute at the end of her life. However, word of her predicament spread through the music community. Several artists held benefits to raise money for her care and the magazines Living Blues and Blues Unlimited helped to spread the word about Minnie's need, generating monetary support from fans.
Memphis Minnie died August 6, 1973, in Memphis. She is buried in New Hope Cemetery in Walls, Mississippi, in an unmarked grave. Posthumously, Blues World described Minnie's 1934 recording, Early Rhythm & Blues, as "the seminal electric sound guitar, bass, piano, drums which eventually cohesed into the style heard round the world." She was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, in 1980.
Click here to return to the Why I Sing The Blues main page.