Memphis Blues (eBook)

Memphis means music. That relationship was solidified in 1909 when W. C. Handy wrote the song 'Mr. Crump' and later published it as the 'Memphis Blues.' As Handy's songs were sung and played in streets and music halls, a spotlight began to shine on a new mecca for innovation in music—Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis Music: Before the Blues surveys the people, music, and events that contributed to the rich musical life that emerged against the backdrop of the Civil War and yellow fever in the 19th century. The story is not just one of the building blocks to what has been called America's greatest export—popular music—but rather it is a story of ongoing innovation and creativity that came from a convergence of people of different cultures.

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The blues was born in the Mississippi Delta, and since that fateful night in 1903 when W. C. Handy heard the mournful sound of a pocketknife sliding over the strings of an acoustic guitar and the plaintive song of a long-forgotten musician in the hot night of Tutwiler, Mississippi, the blues has been on a journey around the world. From the cotton fields and jukejoints of the Delta, up Highway 61 to Memphis,s Beale Street, St. Louis, the Southside of Chicago, England, and points beyond, the blues is America,s unique form of music. Blues is incisive in its honesty, elemental in its rhythm,and powerful in its almost visceral sensation. Nearly every style of popular music has its roots in the blues. Muddy Waters said it best: ,The blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll., Memphis has become the heart of the blues world, with a re-born Beale Street acting as its spiritual center. People come from the world over to experience its beat, savor its emotion, and feel its power. In the end . . . ,it ain,t nothin, but the blues.,