3-559: Memphis blues is a music genre. Memphis blues may refer to: Memphis blues The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes , Sleepy John Estes , Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie . The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows and was associated with Beale Street , the main entertainment area in Memphis. W. C. Handy ,
6-542: A range of other folk styles. It was played on simple, sometimes homemade, instruments such as harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo , guimbarde and jugs blown to supply the bass. After World War II , as African Americans left the Mississippi Delta and other impoverished areas of the South for urban areas, many musicians gravitated to the blues scene in Memphis, changing
9-565: The "Father of the Blues", published the song " The Memphis Blues " in 1909 and this was the first blues to be written down. In lyrics, the phrase has been used to describe a depressed mood . In addition to guitar-based blues, jug bands , such as Gus Cannon 's Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band , were extremely popular practitioners of Memphis blues. The jug band style emphasized the danceable, syncopated rhythms of early jazz and
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