Memphis’ role in nurturing the blues is undeniable. In the theaters, parks, and clubs of Beale Street; in its temporary recording units and legendary studios; in its airwaves shooting across the Delta; and in the careers of those born there and those who only stopped for a while, Memphis was the way point where the country blues of the Delta first grew accustomed to the city. And when it moved on, catching a northbound train to Chicago and beyond, the precedent of the encounter would continue to reverberate in Memphis’ equally historic contributions to jazz, gospel, rockabilly, and soul.

Early Memphis Blues
In the early 20th century, Memphis was considered by many to be the capital of black America. At its heart was the Beale Street district. It was the product of a strictly segregated city, yet within its borders this self-sustaining neighborhood offered African Americans a comparative degree of freedom rarely found elsewhere. Beale Street’s wide-open atmosphere and the crowds it generated attracted droves of musicians from throughout the Delta.

In clubs and theaters, polished music was the norm, with trained musicians reading the hits of the day from sheet music, nimbly moving from ragtime and vaudeville to early blues and jazz. The most notable practitioner of this form was W.C. Handy, a classically trained African American composer who based his orchestra out of Memphis from roughly 1909 until 1917. With his publication of “Memphis Blues” in 1912, Handy arguably became one of the first people to publish a song featuring characteristic “blue notes” and containing the word “blues” in its title, and certainly the first song of this kind to achieve wide acclaim and sales. Although many debate whether Handy’s songs are “true blues,” he nonetheless played a critical role in spreading the form nationwide.

On the street, in the parks, and at the rougher clubs, unvarnished delta blues competed with vaudeville and medicine show-based group performances. Even the rawest performers often had popular tunes of the day at the ready for when the hat was passed. Many legendary classic blues musicians honed their craft, either individually or as part of a group, in this milieu, including Memphis Minnie, Sleepy John Estes, and locals Furry Lewis and Robert Wilkins. Their frequent accompanists, as well as competitors, were jug bands.

Thought to have originated in Louisville, Kentucky, jug bands employed an array of homemade and found instruments such as kazoo, washtub bass, and whiskey bottle, as well as banjo, harmonica, or guitar. Particularly fashionable in Memphis, jug bands played uptempo popular, vaudeville, and blues numbers. Two of the most noteworthy were Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers and the Memphis Jug Band, members of whom continued to play and record around Memphis and beyond until the 1970s.

With the nation swept up in the first “blues boom” of the 1920s, the vast array of musicians and styles being played in Memphis made it an attractive location for record labels to search for new talent. Arriving with portable recording equipment, label representatives would set up impromptu recording studios in hotel rooms, frequently recording as many songs as possible in search of an elusive “hit,” capturing numerous local musicians, as well as traveling Delta artists.

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