introduction and first two chapters of woman with guitar: memphis minnie's blues

8122019 Introduction and First Two Chapters of Woman With Guitar Memphis Minnies Blues

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullintroduction-and-first-two-chapters-of-woman-with-guitar-memphis-minnies 126



Womanwith Guitar

MEMPH I S MINN I E rsquo S BLUE S

Revised and Expanded Edition

Paul Garon and Beth Garon

Foreword by Jim OrsquoNeal

City Lights Books San Francisco



983156 983141 983139 983144 983150 983145 983139 983137 983148 983150 983151 983156 983141

Minniersquos rushed and compressed delivery presents a number ofproblems not the least of which is the number of words that ex-ist somewhere short of articulation in the vicinity of the implicitand the suggested Often a word like ldquoyourdquo is only broached witha barely detectable ldquoyrdquo sound and we are faced with the choice ofrendering it ldquoyourdquo or ldquoyrsquordquo or ignoring it entirely Tis difficultyleads to another Rather than print lyrics in pseudo-dialect we

have chosen not to attempt to render every aspect of Minniersquos (orany singerrsquos) accent But this decision puts even more strain onthe question of the words whose first syllable is barely articulatedif that Tere is no ideal solution to this problem but we feel ourquoted texts accurately represent the songs

We use a standard method of transcribing verses where thefirst two lines are alike or similar by adding a ldquo(2x)rdquo at the end ofthe first line and following it with the third line thus

I found my rooster this morning by looking at his comb(2x)

You can look out now pullets it wonrsquot be long

Tis method ignores the idiosyncrasies that occur betweenMinniersquos various renderings of the same line where line two is ofthe form ldquoawwwwww by looking at his combrdquo but it is otherwisetextually faithful Further the (2x) system became an economicnecessity for a book of this size All songs appearing in the text without an author credit are by Memphis Minnie

In all cases ldquoharprdquo refers to harmonica



983156 983137 983138 983148 983141 983151 983142 983139 983151 983150 983156 983141 983150 983156 983155

Introduction to the New Edition 983089983089

Foreword 983089983091

Part I Te Life 983090983091

983089 Te Heroine 983090983093

983090 Woman with Guitar Te Rise of Memphis Minnie 983090983097

983091 Southern Nights 983091983093

983092 Chicago Days 983093983095

983093 Me and My Chauffeur 983095983091

983094 ldquoI Drink Anywhere I Pleaserdquo 983097983091

Part II Te Songs 983089983091983093

983095 ldquoTe Best Ting Goinrsquordquo 983089983091983095 983096 o Make Heard the Interior Voice 983089983092983091

983097 Bumble Bee 983089983093983093

983089983088 Crime 983089983094983095

983089983089 Dirt Dauber Blues 983089983096983091

983089983090 Doctors and Disease 983089983097983091

983089983091 Doors 983090983089983091

983089983092 Dirty Dozens 983090983089983097

983089983093 Duets 983090983090983095

983089983094 Food and Cooking 983090983092983089

983089983095 Horses 983090983092983097

983089983096 rains and ravel 983090983093983095

983089983097 Mad Love 983090983095983097

983090983088 Work 983090983096983097



Appendices 983091983088983095

Locations of Memphis Minnie Nightclub

Performances 983091983088983097

WPA Interview 983091983089983091

A Discography of Memphis Minnie 983091983089983093

itles of LPs and CDs that Appear in the

Discography 983091983092983096

Notes 983091983093983090 Index 983091983097983093



11

983145 983150 983156 983154 983151 983140 983157 983139 983156 983145 983151 983150983156 983151 983156 983144 983141 983150 983141 983159 983141 983140 983145 983156 983145 983151 983150

When you write a biographical study of someone you becomethe object of outpourings of collegiality On numerous occasions when they found new information on Memphis Minnie fellowresearchers passed along their discoveries to us Without theirhelp this book could not have taken its current expanded shape

Te basic content of the book remains the same but therehave been many additions We have added many more names anddates for Minniersquos nightclub and theater appearances many new

photos including a previously unknown photo of Minnie andnew (and corrected) vital statistics about Minniersquos place of birthand early childhood

We have brought the discography up to date listing all theMemphis Minnie CDs (and LPs) that have been issued since thefirst discography went to press in 1992 We have included a selec-tion of Minniersquos appearance on compilation CDs that also feature

other artists as well Because Minniersquos CDs have become so nu-merous we have supplied a separate CDLP title list at the end ofthe discography



13

983142 983151 983154 983141 983159 983151 983154 983140

Te iconic status now accorded Memphis Minnie as a feminist

symbol and female potentate in a manrsquos world is nothing newto the corps of devotees that had already developed by the timeWoman with Guitar was first published in 1992 But she is farmore widely recognized as a heroine now than when she wasknown mainly among hardcore blues collectors and among musi-cians and audiences who knew of her during her performing yearsI would argue that much of this new adulation can be traced backto Woman with Guitar While the number of people who actually

read the book and took up her cause may have been only a fewthousand Paul and Beth Garonrsquos treatise became exponentiallyimportant to a more general readership and music-buying audi-ence especially as the digital age progressed Woman with Guitar served as a source point for reviewers (of the book and of herCDs) for liner note writers of the many CD compilations thathave since appeared and ultimately for the half a million hits thata Google search for the name Memphis Minnie will now yield onthe Internet And the analytical discussions in the book have alsoopened more minds to probe what lies beneath the lyrics Minniesang to try to interpret and appreciate her songs (and indeedblues songs in general) in the contexts of creativity imaginationand poetic freedom In the majesty and passion of her art theblues could be a pathway to the heart or an incantation of desireIt could be a weapon in the war against race and gender prejudice

it could be a claim to free will It could imbue the mundane withmagic it could conjoin the real with the surreal

1048626



14

Te same digital information network that has propelled aware-ness of Memphis Minniersquos music and her story from Woman withGuitar has also opened a window limited as it may bemdashto print

sources of the past that once seemed all but lost to us to the worldof Minniersquos heyday as a performer When Woman with Guitar wasfirst published Google amazoncom allmusiccom ancestrycom Facebook and Youtube did not exist oday ample materialon blues is accessible through such Internet resources and booksspecialist blues magazines and newspaper archives

Yet it is still true as the authors note in chapter 1 thatconsidering Minniersquos significance in blues ldquosurprisingly little

documentation exists for so extensive a careerrdquo In a survey ofvintage newspapers and magazines undertaken to contributenew material for this edition of Women with Guitar I did findher records advertised in numerous periodicals as well as clubappearances publicized primarily in the Chicago Defender Butdespite her obvious popularity as a recording artist and live en-tertainer there was little coverage of Minnie as a personality and

no analysis of her songs beyond short record reviews During herdecades as an active performer no newspaper or magazine evenreported as much as her age birth date or home town Not evenLangston Hughes an obvious admirer who wrote an evocativeDefender review of a Minnie performance bothered to gatherspecific details of her life Her first published biographies briefbut significant appear to have been published in French inDictionnaire du Jazz by Hugues Panassieacute and Madeleine Gautier

(1954)1 and in Big Bill Blues (1955) by Big Bill Broonzy and Yannick Bruynoghe when Minniersquos career was nearing its endOnah Spencer submitted a one-page typewritten bio on Minnieas part of the Illinois Writers Project Negro Music Survey dated August 1 1939 but this apparently was never published untilnow (see WPA Interview in appendices)

While the lives recordings and careers of blues artists bothfamous and obscure have been documented in obsessive detailover the past several decades in Memphis Minniersquos day blues art-ists werenrsquot accorded anywhere near this degree of biographicalscrutiny It was once rare to even see a photo or a news account of ablack entertainer in the general daily press and popular magazines



15

largely written by and for white communities Te class-conscious African American press promoted nationally successful black en-tertainers with a polished uptown image such as Duke Ellington

Ella Fitzgerald Fats Waller Nat ldquoKingrdquo Cole Louis Jordan CountBasie Jimmie Lunceford the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spotsmdashnot coincidentally the same acts by and large that came to enjoysome degree of crossover popularity with whites Scant editorialcoverage was allotted blues singers of the downhome southern orChicago variety But such papers were apparently happy to ac-cept advertisements for records or club appearances by the likesof Minnie Big Bill Broonzy Sonny Boy Williamson Big Maceo

and ampa RedIn Minniersquos case the primary print outlet was the Chicago

Defender During the 1920s the Defender was loaded with ads forrecords by blues artists ranging from Bessie Smith and Ida Coxto Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson often colorfullyillustrated with drawings by white ad designers Memphis Minnieand Kansas Joe had the misfortune to begin recording just as the

Depression was about to hit resulting in a drastic cutback in re-cord company advertising So only a few of their records were ad-vertised in the Defender (and some other black papers includingthe New York Amsterdam News and the Baltimore Afro-American)in 1929ndash1930 After the Depression the record labels rarely ad-vertised individual releases in newspapers any more although re-cord stores did often publish lists of the latest hits for sale in localpapers By the 1940s the national trade publication Billboard

had become the major print medium for record label marketing(soon joined by Cash Box )

Te Memphis Minnie records that were advertised in theDefender in the 1940s were listed along with numerous otherreleases in ads placed by record stores usually mail-order housesbased in Washington DC Philadelphia or New York Whatthe Defender did print from at least 1941 on were ads forMinniersquos Chicago club appearances at the Cotton Club MartinrsquosCorner Frostrsquos Corner Joersquos Rendezvous Lounge and othernightspots sometimes augmented by short news blurbs and oc-casional photos promoting her appearances (such items probablycoming as part of the sales packages offered advertisers) Te ads



16

appeared in the paperrsquos local edition but the national edition car-ried occasional news

News about Minnie was occasionally mentioned in other

Defender reports including her 1936 stint performing on an excur-sion boat appearances in Columbus Ohio in 1937 and OcalaFlorida in 1946 and a fete in her honor in Chicago in 19462

Te Columbus report also noted ldquoShe hails from Chicagorsquosradiolandrdquomdasha rare reference to an intriguing but so far little-doc-umented phase of Minniersquos career when she was broadcasting liveon the popular Red Hot and Low Down program (which aired on WCFL WJJD and WAAF at various times from at least 1932 to

1938 and again on WCFL in 1941ndash42 according to radio logsfrom the Chicago Tribune (Tese stations offered a variety of gen-eral-interest programming black-oriented stations were still someyears away at this point) Red Hot and Low Down is also mentionedin Onah Spencerrsquos 1939 notes on Minnie Te regular host of RedHot and Low Down was Bob Hawk who later gained nationalfame hosting quiz shows on the CBS radio network3 Information

on blues artists who appeared on the program is spotty but an-other may have been Kokomo Arnold who was advertised asan ldquoInternationally Famous Radio and Decca Recording Artistrdquoin a July 9 1938 Defender ad (Minnie also later performed onKFFA in Helena Arkansas and WDIA in Memphis according toBrewer Phillips See p 108)

Minniersquos music was also featured in record reviews in theDefender and other papers notably in ldquoRating the Recordsrdquo a

column by the African-American poet and writer Frank MarshallDavis syndicated by the Associated Negro Press (ANP) Davisrsquoscolumn later headed ldquoKeeping Up with the Discsrdquo also appearedin the Atlanta Daily World Cleveland Call amp Post Baltimore Afro- American Philadelphia Tribune California Eagle and other blacknewspapers Davis reviewed a wide range of music both blackand white and though blues may not have been his favoritegenre his knowledge of blues records seemed well grounded andhe deemed blues important enough to include in regular fashionHe was reviewing Minniersquos records as early as the June 12 1939edition of the Daily World praising Low Down Blues on Vocalionin a paragraph headed ldquoCellar Stuffrdquo as ldquoAnother top-notch lsquorace



17

recordrsquo full of belly laughsrdquo In his August 21 1941 col-umn printed in the Philadelphia Tribune Davis wrote ldquoMemphisMinnie who sings mean blues gets her thumping rhythm going

on the Okeh recording of Me and My Chauffeur Blues and Canrsquot Afford to Lose My Man She shows good sense on the second siderdquoBut in a November 1 piece in the Baltimore Afro-American heopined ldquoMemphis Minnie has done better than on her Okeh re-cording of In My Girlish Days and My Gage Is Going Uprdquo

Oddly enough another singer who used the name MemphisMinniemdashMinnie Wallace who recorded for Victor on September23 1929 accompanied by members of the Memphis Jug Band

followed by sessions for Vocalion in 1935mdashproved more news- worthy to some publications for writing a song about a con-victed murderer Wallace penned ldquorigger Slim Bluesrdquo about aMemphis gunman James Goodlin whose crimes had achievedrecent notoriety Jimmie Gordon recorded the song for Deccaon June 4 1940 Reporters for the Memphis Press-Scimitar andDelta Democrat-Times who talked to Wallace published more bio-

graphical information about her (a preacherrsquos daughter in PortGibson Mississippi and a resident of Greenville before movingto Memphis) than anyone did about our Memphis Minnie atthe time4 Neither paper noted the existence of a more famousMemphis Minnie if they knew of her at all they may have as-sumed she and Minnie Wallace (who recorded only under herown name never as Memphis Minnie) were the same Te nameMemphis Minnie as a character in plays actually preceded its ap-

pearance on Memphis Minniersquos records)5

So it remained the tavern and the phonograph record thatprovided that the contexts for Minniersquos contemporary press cover-age Te jukebox a medium of both the tavern and the record be-came the defining factor in Billboard rsquos approach to music Whereasnewspaper reviews were consumer-oriented Billboard rated re-cords in terms of their appeal to jukebox operators And Minniersquosrecords were highly rated as likely to bring ldquocoinage to the race loca-tionsrdquo She was even hailed as ldquothe outstanding race blues singer ofthe dayrdquo in one review Just to sample excerpts from a few reviews

Me and My Chauffeur BluesCanrsquot Afford to Lose My Man ldquoInthe race register the blues singing of Memphis Minnie always



18

makes for coin machine magic at the Harlem spotsrdquo (January30 1943)

Looking the World Over ldquoOperators servicing the out-and-

out race business have a natural in Memphis Minniersquos Looking theWorld Over Te outstanding race singer of the day Miss Minnieagain impresses with her blues chant that tells how she sowed her wild oats and now that she has had her fun is ready to settle down with her manrdquo (February 20 1943)

Irsquom So GladMean Mistreater Blues ldquoItrsquos top in race shout-ing that Memphis Minnie delivers singing it way deep down andphrasing it blue as the guitar and string bass beat out a throbbing

rhythmic accompaniment for her own selectionsrdquo (May 3 1947)Fish Man Blues ldquoAn old hand at shouting out the back-

biting race blues Memphis Minnie stirs up plenty of excitement with her sultry and salty singing here With a terrific rock to herchant and the accompanying guitar bass and drums poundingout a driving rhythm gal spins out a blues classic for Fish ManBlues in which she tells her man to hold off his bait Race spots

will shower coin pieces on this platter particularly for Fish ManBlues rdquo (September 13 1947) While Billboard rsquos reviews indicated sales potential for

Minniersquos records the discs never sold quite well enough for her tomake the magazinersquos charts for ldquoracerdquo or rhythm amp blues records which only began in October 1942 as the Harlem Hit Paradeleaving the earlier years of blues releases in uncharted territory

In reconstructing blues history researchers have relied heavily

on the Defender and other black papers as well as Billboard whenseeking what press coverage there was of blues artists But withthe advances in digitalization and microfilming ads and recordreviews have come to the light from a far-flung variety of daily and weekly local newspapers revealing that while many readers maynot have known Minniersquos music well if at all a substantial general(primarily white) readership at least saw Minniersquos name in print

In a series of ads that ran on the ldquoFarm Newsrdquo pages of anumber of small weeklies in exas and Oklahoma from August1930 to May 1931 Brunswick branches in Dallas and KansasCity advertised more records by Minnie (on Vocalion) than byany other artist black or white Leroy Carrrsquos Vocalion discs were



19

also regularly listed in the ads which sometimes also advertisedblues by Charley Jordan Peetie Wheatstraw Lee Green Robert Wilkins Lucille Bogan Funny Paper Smith and others along with

gospel pop jazz and hillbilly releases and a picture of a Brunswickportable phonograph in every ad Tese ads in the Columbus(exas) Colorado Citizen the Hearne (exas) Democrat the Eufala (Oklahoma) Indian Journal and others directed buyers simply toldquoBrunswick and Vocalion Dealersrdquo and also solicited ldquoResponsibleMerchantsrdquo from areas where the company had no dealers6

Advertising for records hit its lowest point during the re-mainder of the 1930s But with a boost from the wartime and

early postwar economy many music shops and other stores thatcarried records including furniture dealers jewelers and depart-ment stores actively advertised beginning in early 1945 MinniersquosColumbia releases were listed in store ads in such diverse peri-odicals as the Canton (Ohio) Repository Naugatuck (Connecticut)Daily News Council Bluffs (Iowa) Nonpareil Las Cruces (NewMexico) Sun-News Anniston (Alabama ) Star and Charleston (West

Virginia) Daily News Tese stores listed a number of releases ineach admdashpop country jazz and classical with typically only a fewblues if any Sometimes Minnie was the only blues artist listedin ads alongside Frank Sinatra Perry Como and Harry JamesTe widespread coverage was evidence of Minniersquos status as a topColumbia artist and of the broad reach of Columbiarsquos major-labeldistribution Columbia also included Minnie in ads promoting itsroster in the entertainment trade magazine Variety in the 1940s

Columbia and other labels also provided review copies tonewspapers While Billboard and the Associated Negro Press af-filiates reviewed Minniersquos records most frequently again her re-cords occasionally popped up in the mainstream press includingsome major outlets Sometimes the releases were merely listed butsome reviewers also offered opinions Te Chicago Tribune noless noted Cherry Ball and I Donrsquot Want No Woman I Have to Give My Money To by Kansas Joe amp Memphis Minnie on November30 1930 along with other Vocalion and Brunswick records byRobert Wilkins Joe Callicott and Lee Green7 On November 141935 the San Antonio Light recognized her Joe Louis Strut as anexample of recent songs with topical themes8 Minnie made the



20

Tribune again on March 25 1945 when critic Will Davidson en-thused ldquoTere is an art to appreciating good blues singing buthow can you miss the strange appeal of Minnie in When You Love

Me or Love Come and Gordquo9 Columbia evidently put extra pro-motional push behind this Okeh single as part of its first batch ofreleases upon the lifting of a record ban imposed by the AmericanFederation of Musicians in 194210 It was also reviewed in the NewYork Herald Tribune (by music critic Paul Bowles a noted novel-ist and composer) Times-Picayune New Orleans States ClevelandPlain Dealer and Greensboro Daily News 11

A scattering of ads and news items from 1946 help track

Minniersquos touring that year perhaps booked by Ferguson Brothersof Indianapolis a leading agency in the representation of blackentertainers of the era Her appearance in Ocala Florida on June8 was publicized in the black press including the Defender andPittsburgh Courier while other ads appeared in local daily newspa-pers including the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle Kokomo (Indiana)Tribune and Danville (Virginia) Bee for concerts in those cities12

In several ads in Chicago and on tour dates the billing was toldquoMemphis Minnie and Her Electric Guitarrdquo her amplified instru-ment already having been documented as a strong element of herlive shows by Langston Hughesrsquos Defender review of her show atthe 230 Club An October 7 1944 Martinrsquos Corner Defender adtouted her as ldquoMaster of Electric Guitarrdquo It raises the question ofhow much more powerful her live performance sound may havebeen than on her studio recordings likewise several 1946 tour

dates advertised her with Leo Hinesrsquos fourteen-piece orchestra aconfiguration that was never captured in her recording sessionsOccasional ads and articles prove or sometimes at least suggestthat she was also performing for white or mixed audiences presum-ably on the excursion steamer mentioned in the Defender in 1936at black and tan clubs on her 1946 concert tour where separate white seating was advertised in Virginia and at Schindlerrsquos Teatrein Chicago in 1951 where she was advertised in the December22 Defender as ldquoQueen of the Bluesrdquo A Chicago Tribune notice ofNovember 9 1952 indicates that the folk music movement wasattuned to her music as well as she took Big Bill Broonzyrsquos place ata ldquoCome for to Singrdquo program at the Blue Note



21

During her post-Columbia career Minniersquos presence in thepress declined although Billboard did continue to cover her re-leases on Regal Checker and JOB and her Chicago appearances

were still advertised for a few years in the Defender Just as her star was waning with the black American blues audience Europeanblues enthusiasts began writing about her Georges Adins fromBelgium corresponded with her prior to visiting her in Memphisin 1962 resulting in a 1963 article in R and B Panorama He along with Big Bill Broonzy and Yannick Bruynoghe may have suppliedHugues Panassieacute with information for the Memphis Minnie en-try in Dictionnaire du Jazz in 1954 Adinsrsquos article and a Mike

Leadbitter piece in the British journal Blues Unlimited providedmuch of the framework for Minniersquos biography as we know it

In the United States jazz critic Leonard Feather a Britishtransplant included a short entry on Minnie in the New Editionof the Encyclopedia of Jazz in 1960 (after omitting her from the firstedition) but it seems entirely based on Broonzyrsquos book FollowingMinniersquos stroke and retirement there was little written about her

in the American press in the 1960s although on May 25 1968her hometown Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on a gather-ing organized in her honor by local aficionado Harry Godwin atthe nursing home where Minnie resided (see p 139)

Tis sampling of Memphis Minnie in the press representsonly what a few blues researchers have found over the years along with recent results of digital searches of newspaper archives ongenealogy web sites Undoubtedly as more and more newspa-

pers are microfilmed and digitized there will be more to discoverabout Memphis Minnie and her music But with what we alreadyknow we can better appreciate the broader national scope of herfame and her importance and the special appeal of a remarkableldquoWoman with Guitarrdquo

mdashJim OrsquoNeal January 2014

(Tanks to Rob Ford Robert Pruter Scott Dirks and FrankHoffmanrsquos Jazz Advertised in the Negro Press for information on ar-ticles and ads and to Elin Peltz for Library of Congress copyrightresearch Tanks also to Vicente P Zumel for research assistance)



983152 983137 983154 983156 983145

The Life



25

983151 983150 983141

THE HEROINE

If women remain passive I think there is little hope for survival of life on this earth

mdashLeonora Carrington

Who was Memphis Minnie She may be relatively unknown tothe general public but among blues fans her feats are legend-ary ldquoMemphis Minnie was one of the greatest blues singers of alltimerdquo said Living Blues magazine1

In a 1973 obituary one critic called her ldquothe most popular fe-male country blues singerrdquo2 while Blues Whorsquos Who quotes anothercommentator who stated ldquoMemphis Minnie was without doubtthe greatest of all female singers to recordrdquo3

Many blues artists date an entire era in their lives by referringto her As Koko aylor said ldquothe first blues record I ever heard

was Me and My Chauffeur Blues by Memphis Minnierdquo4

HoundDog aylor speaking of his early days in Chicago in 1943ndash1944noted that ldquo47th Street was jumping on the South Side When Ifirst come up Memphis Minnie was playing at the old 708 Club with her first husbandrdquo5 When Baby Boy Warren looked back onthe singers who influenced him the most and for whom he hadthe most respect he commented ldquoTe other musician I admired[besides Little Buddy Doyle] was a womanmdashMemphis Minnierdquo6

And Bukka White reminisced ldquoMemphis Minnie WashboardSam ampa Red Big Bill they were my favorite rsquocause they really would knock the cover off a house Tey play in the nightclubs would play house parties through the day Otherwise they were



26

rehearsing people would be there as many as they would be atthe nightclub sometimesrdquo7

She was among the first twenty performers elected to the

Hall of Fame in the inaugural W C Handy Awards in 19808 andshe won the top female vocalist award in the first Blues UnlimitedReadersrsquo Poll in 1973 finishing ahead of Bessie Smith and MaRainey9 And this wouldnrsquot be the only time Minnie was com-pared to such greats Helen Oakley Dance ranked -Bone Walkerldquoat the top with ladies like Bessie Smith Ma Rainey MemphisMinnierdquo10

Many people who have heard of Big Bill Broonzy or ampa

Red still donrsquot know much about Minnie But her songs have beenrecorded by performers as diverse as Bob Wills and His exasPlayboys Mance Lipscomb Muddy Waters Clifton Chenier anddozens of others both obscure and well known It would be noexaggeration to say that Memphis Minnie was one of the mostinfluential blues singers ever to record11 Few today realize howextremely popular she was with a string of hits and nearly 100

records to her credit12

Countless performers were influenced by her Johnny ShinesEddie Boyd Calvin Frazier J B Hutto Lowell Fulson and J BLenoir all testified that they derived some aspects of their stylefrom Memphis Minnie13 Of course a list of blues artists whoplayed with Minnie in Chicago not to mention those who fre-quently heard her and were influenced by her would read likea Chicago Blues Whorsquos Who with Big Bill St Louis Jimmy

Washboard Sam Memphis Slim ampa Red Black Bob JimmieGordon Blind John Davis Charlie McCoy and Sunnyland Slimnear the top of the list and dozens more below

Te breadth of Minniersquos influence is striking When ChuckBerry arrived in Chicago Minnie was recording for LeonardChessrsquos Checker label Berry would soon become a Chess star andMinnie was an important influence on his musical developmentTere are even rumors of a mysterious tape of an extended jamsession involving Chuck Berry and Memphis Minnie but Berryhas kept silent about its details refusing even to reveal when it wasmade or what songs it contains14

Because Minnie began her recording career in 1929 and



27

kept going for three decades her presence was written large acrossthe whole history of the recorded blues Year after year her styleevolved and by the time illness forced her to retire she had re-

corded the country blues the urban blues the Melrose sound theChicago blues and the postwar blues Nonetheless surprisinglylittle documentation exists for so extensive a career Fortunately we have the testimony of Minniersquos youngest sister Daisy Douglas Johnson Mrs Johnson has remarked however that while her in-formation has come directly from Minnie herself most of it wastransmitted after Minnie had her first stroke15

Many of the details of Minniersquos life story that came from

early reports by pioneer blues researchers Georges Adins and MikeLeadbitter remain unsubstantiated but we do not reject themout of hand16 Indeed in the absence of standard printed sourcesthat usually provide the foundation of historical and biographi-cal studiesmdashin the absence for example of birth certificates forMinnie Joe McCoy and Ernest Lawlars (Son Joe)mdashand in thepresence of four different dates of birth established for Minnie

in various works of blues criticism17

and even by various officialdocuments our tale will be by necessity unorthodox and anec-dotal Nonetheless we do provide documents rarely seen in bluesbiographies eg union records and recording contracts

We hope the organization of this book will present Minnieand her work in an enjoyable and readable form Chapter 2 con-tains a historical overview of the development of blues duringMinniersquos lifetime and how Minnie seemed to stretch the bound-

aries of its forms Such a perspective is of crucial importance inunderstanding the unique aspects of Minniersquos role and functionChapters 3 through 7 provide a chronology of Memphis Minniefrom her birth to her death in the words of her friends and rela-tives Wherever possible this information is supplemented bymaterial from printed sources Chapters 8 through 20 attempt toview Minniersquos songs as specific products of a specific cultural mo-ment acted upon by conflicting forces of gender race and class Intwelve sections each devoted to a group of songs that bear upona specific idea or theme we analyze the cultural forces through which the blues and Minniersquos blues in particular come into be-ing Tese twelve chapters are introduced by a brief discussion



28

of the principles of interpretation that we use throughout theanalysis Finally we provide a thorough discography of MemphisMinniersquos work complete with Library of Congress copyright in-

formation and where possible composer credits taken from thelabels of the records themselves

While our main purpose is to celebrate and delineateMemphis Minniersquos life and songs we will also examine Minniersquossongs as exceptional examples of the blues genre stunning piec-es that reveal not only Minniersquos magnificence but the grandeurof the blues as well Te hundreds of sides Minnie recorded arethe perfect material to teach us about the blues For the blues

are at once general and particular speaking for millions but in ahighly singular individual voice Tat is part of their magic theirart Listening to Minniersquos songs we will hear her fantasies herdreams her desires but we will hear them as if they were our own



29

983156 983159 983151

WOMAN WITH GUITAR

THE RISE OF MEMPHIS MINNIE

Knock hard Life is deafmdashMimi Parent

Mamie Smithrsquos 1920 recording of Crazy Blues was one of the firstrecords to demonstrate that there was a sizable African American

audience who would buy vocal blues recordings performed by an African American singer1 In the ensuing years blues performancestyles on record underwent numerous modifications as they re-flected the subtle changes in tastes economic pressures and trendsin the entertainment industry Te first blues to be recorded werethe vaudeville-style ldquoClassicrdquo blues usually sung by women likeBessie Smith or Ida Cox from a stage and accompanied by a

male pianist or band Te songs themselves were often composedby black male songwriters although a few of these women sing-ers eg Ma Rainey wrote a number of their own songs Teirheyday on record began in 1920 and ended with the DepressionTe label ldquoClassicrdquo has been assailed for its unsuitability but itsdetractors have not been convincing2 For some there may be areluctance to grant ldquoClassicrdquo status to a period of blues dominatedby women especially when they can point to a subsequent period

that seemed to be dominated by men but the priority on recordof Classic blues and the women who sang them speaks for itself3 Te term ldquoClassicrdquo blues to describe vaudeville-style blues perfor-mance has nonetheless disappeared from scholarly commentary



30

Tese vaudeville-style blues dominated the blues recordingindustry for five or six years beginning in 1920 but by the mid-1920s ldquocountry bluesrdquo began to appear more and more frequently

in the record company catalogs Country blues continued to be widely recorded until the Depression brought the recording in-dustry to a near standstill in 1932ndash1933 By 1934 when the re-cording industry began to stir again a new combo style of blues was in the air Troughout the thirties and into the forties andfifties blues singers on record tended to be accompanied by apiano and drums a bass one or two guitars and occasional hornsor harmonicas Amplifiers for guitars became a common sight by

the 1940s While this combo style dominated the blues scene ofthe 1930s and 1940s neither ldquojump bluesrdquo ldquourban bluesrdquo ldquocitybluesrdquo ldquoChicago bluesrdquo or half a dozen other nominees has everbecome the standard term to describe the music played by thesesmall blues groups of the thirties and forties By the late 1940sand early 1950s this urban style had crystalized in the hands ofMuddy Waters Howlinrsquo Wolf and many others to produce the

well-known electric sound of what came to be called the the postwar blues or Chicago bluesTese demarcations are neither as linear nor as finely drawn

as our sketch suggests however and last nightrsquos Classic bluesqueen could easily be the morningrsquos country blues artist Singerslike Lottie Kimbrough (neacutee Beaman) for example performed inboth styles with either Classic or downhome accompanimentand many 1930s as well as postwar performances also refuse to

fit the molds wersquove created for them Sara Martin was most fre-quently recorded in the early 1920s with a piano or small groupaccompaniment Sylvester Weaver a country blues guitarist ac-companied Sara Martin for several sessions and was hailed forpioneering this unusual combination of vaudeville-styled womansinger and country blues guitarist Were these records countryblues or classic vaudeville-style blues

Looking at the accompaniment for Gertrude Perkins record-ed in Dallas in 1927 presents us with the same potential for con-tradiction Perkins was accompanied by guitarist Coley Jones andOctave Gaspard on tuba Was this city or country blues Straininglike this against these categories suggests the categories themselves



31

obscure as much as they clarify But it is important to understandthese structures in order to understand how Minnie cracked them

While the vaudeville-style blues singers were relatively sophis-

ticated women singers who performed on the stage the countryblues artists tended to be unsophisticated males who accompa-nied themselves on acoustic guitars4 Tese downhome musiciansplayed for family and friends at home or at parties in juke jointsor at picnics and suppers Country blues performers tended to besemi-professionals who also farmed or performed other seasonallabor in the logging industry levee camps turpentine camps andsimilar places but the most famous performers were often able to

get by on their musical skills aloneIn many ways the ascendancy of country blues seemed pro-

gressive and a new and younger audience was quick to respond tothese highly rhythmic songs Te self-accompanied country bluesperformer embodied a new autonomy and for many rural recordbuyers country blues on record as well as in person was a fas-cinating step into the future Tis was an exciting dance music

and the couple and individual dances that listeners did to bluesaccompaniment represented greater individualism for blacks thanthe square dances that were done to pre-blues forms5

Tat most of the guitar-playing country blues artists on re-cord were male is of critical importance however for such ldquoprog-ressrdquo often contains a secret the oppression and exploitation of women If we are inspired by Fourierrsquos notion that the generalindex of emancipation is the level of the emancipation of women

we are confronted with the fact that just such moments as theldquoascendancyrdquo of country blues need reevaluation Have we notalready seen that there is major resistance to calling the period offemale-dominated blues recording Classic even though ldquoClassicrdquosatisfies the requirements of many defininitions of the term andis used to describe the period that was in fact the vocal bluesrsquofirst heyday on record In contrast the vintage years of record-ed (male) country blues 1927ndash1933 are usually considered theldquoprimerdquo years of blues recording For example in 1965 one criticgloated that country blues 78s were finally being recognized asvaluable while the previously highly esteemed Classic blues ofthe vaudeville-influenced blueswomen were now being devalued6



32

From one perspective then what had happened to thevaudeville blueswomen was not at all unusual o hire black mento fill jobs once held by black women was consistent with sex-

ist practices of the day and upheld the mainstream cultural no-tions that a womanrsquos place was in the home that men were betterthan women at most jobs and that it was a manrsquos role to workfor a living for the rest of ldquohisrdquo family Further it was a pact be-tween malesmdashsongwriterbandleader Perry Bradford and OkehrsquosFred Hagermdashthat allowed Mamie Smith to make her first record While this view should not be allowed to obscure the fact thatBradford and Smith were a black team that achieved an important

victory for black culture the very fact that Smithrsquos recording ses-sions had to be negotiated by Bradford supports the thesis of thepact between two males with a woman as its object

Add to this the fact that the Classic blueswomen were beingpaid far more than the country bluesmen and the formerrsquos disap-pearance from record is more easily understood For example atthe beginning of her career with Columbia Bessie Smith was paid

$125 per usable side the same amount she was paid during herlast year with Columbia but at her peak she was receiving $200per usable side Meanwhile Columbiarsquos male country blues ldquostarsrdquolike Peg Leg Howell or Barbecue Bob received only $15 per sideMinnie and Joe were probably paid at this latter rate for their firstColumbia sides and itrsquos doubly ironic that Minnie who was sooften said to ldquoplay like a manrdquo was also paid like a man in thisatypical case where women were paid more than men7

But it would be a mistake to think that the men replacedthe women or that country blues replaced the Classic blues TeDepression not only ended many vaudeville blues careersmdashjustas it ended vaudevillemdashbut it put the same final stamp on thelivelihood of countless male country blues artists as well Whenthe economic situation began to improve and blues singers beganto return to the studios neither Classic blues singers nor countryblues artists would last very long Te artists who survived wouldbe those of both sexes who had sufficiently urbanized their stylesor who could demonstrate the greatest affinity for the new swing-influenced rhythms8

Minnie was a pioneer at precisely the time and place that all



33

of these forces coalesced Before attempting to understand howshe survived the Depression we must first understand how shefaced it as a self-accompanied guitarist playing country blues

Almost by default ldquowomenrsquos bluesrdquo has come to denote Classicvaudeville-style blues Minniersquos fame thus fell into the gap createdby the prominence of the vaudeville blues singers on one side andthe progressive aspects of the male country blues stylists on theother A number of women refused the Classic designation byvirtue of their having seized some of the privileges customarilyreserved for men o ldquoplay as good as any manrdquo also meant to bedoing what men were supposed to be doing and what women

were not supposed to be doing for such a music style was largelyconfined to men or so it has been thought But guitar-playing women like Minnie (yes there were others) constituted an effec-tive link that served to give female blues singing a continuity in itsleanest years Even their number is impressive

Many of these singers are known to us through their phono-graph records Te rough-voiced Mattie Delaney Ethel McCoy

Rosa Lee Hill Precious Bryant all of these women accompaniedthemselves on guitar as did the obscure Elvie Tomas and Geeshie Wiley and as did Jessie Mae Hemphill who died in 2006 Otherfemale instrumentalists never recorded and it was all too easy toread a hint or two about their existence without its ever registeringin onersquos consciousness For example one writer noted that eddyDarby had ldquofooled around with his motherrsquos [guitar] but hadmade slight progress on it at that timerdquo9 Nothing more is known

about the guitar talents of Darbyrsquos mother and this isnrsquot the only en-ticing reference of this kind McKinley James Robert Shaw LouisMyers J B Lenoir and ommie Lee Russell all had guitar-playingmothers10 In sum while dozens of female performers gained a rep-utation as blues singers on the vaudeville stage in the early twentiesthe later twenties saw the rise in popularity of the self-accompanieddownhome male blues singer Hidden by this schematic however were a number of women who performed in a rural style and ac-companied themselves on guitar How well hidden they were canbe seen from this comment by bluesman James Watt when askedabout Minniersquos same-sex competitors ldquoTere was only MemphisMinnie Tere wasnrsquot too many girl blues singers outrdquo11



34

Tus there was a significant current of women countryblues performers hidden from us through the traditional ma-nipulation of ldquoopposingrdquo categories like malefemale urbanru-

ral downhomecity12 What was also hidden was the degree to which this performance style embodied for the blueswoman areal gain in autonomy and independence usually reserved formale artists Even the most pragmatic assessment reveals consid-erable personal benefit

For example much glamour was attached to the role of bluessinger regardless of how and where it was fulfilled Te wages ofeven the lower-paying music jobs were considerably in excess of

the pitiful amounts paid to women in agriculture and domesticservice or the lowest-level factory work open to poor and under-educated black women In factory work black women were oftenpaid less than black men And blues singing was far easier thanback-breaking work like picking cotton13 We will see that it wasthis latter task that Minnie would do anything to avoid Whatmade her so unusual was that she could do something

Performance at picnics suppers and juke joints also enabledher to establish an intimacy with her audience that the vaude-ville stage made difficult Further Minnie wrote much of herown material Tis not only enabled her to avoid the pressureand management of the often exploitative male songwriters butit reinforced her own imaginative committment to her songs She was also her own manager a gratifying role for such an obviouslyindependent woman Finally Minnie played the lead guitar of

her partnerships and performed more lead and solo vocals thandid her partners She also released more single records than herpartner(s) or husbands All of these factors combined to makeit possible for Minnie to assume a musical identity that beforeher time had been achieved mostly by males And there is con-siderable evidence that Minnie was acutely aware of the unusualaspects of the life she chose to live



Womanwith Guitar

MEMPH I S MINN I E rsquo S BLUE S

Revised and Expanded Edition

Paul Garon and Beth Garon

Foreword by Jim OrsquoNeal

City Lights Books San Francisco



983156 983141 983139 983144 983150 983145 983139 983137 983148 983150 983151 983156 983141










983156 983137 983138 983148 983141 983151 983142 983139 983151 983150 983156 983141 983150 983156 983155


Foreword 983089983091


983089 Te Heroine 983090983093



983092 Chicago Days 983093983095



Part II Te Songs 983089983091983093


983097 Bumble Bee 983089983093983093

983089983088 Crime 983089983094983095



983089983091 Doors 983090983089983091

983089983092 Dirty Dozens 983090983089983097

983089983093 Duets 983090983090983095

983089983094 Food and Cooking 983090983092983089

983089983095 Horses 983090983092983097

983089983096 rains and ravel 983090983093983095

983089983097 Mad Love 983090983095983097

983090983088 Work 983090983096983097



Appendices 983091983088983095


Performances 983091983088983097

WPA Interview 983091983089983091



Discography 983091983092983096

Notes 983091983093983090 Index 983091983097983093



11

983145 983150 983156 983154 983151 983140 983157 983139 983156 983145 983151 983150983156 983151 983156 983144 983141 983150 983141 983159 983141 983140 983145 983156 983145 983151 983150








13

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The Life



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983156 983141 983139 983144 983150 983145 983139 983137 983148 983150 983151 983156 983141










983156 983137 983138 983148 983141 983151 983142 983139 983151 983150 983156 983141 983150 983156 983155


Foreword 983089983091


983089 Te Heroine 983090983093



983092 Chicago Days 983093983095



Part II Te Songs 983089983091983093


983097 Bumble Bee 983089983093983093

983089983088 Crime 983089983094983095



983089983091 Doors 983090983089983091

983089983092 Dirty Dozens 983090983089983097

983089983093 Duets 983090983090983095

983089983094 Food and Cooking 983090983092983089

983089983095 Horses 983090983092983097

983089983096 rains and ravel 983090983093983095

983089983097 Mad Love 983090983095983097

983090983088 Work 983090983096983097



Appendices 983091983088983095


Performances 983091983088983097

WPA Interview 983091983089983091



Discography 983091983092983096

Notes 983091983093983090 Index 983091983097983093



11

983145 983150 983156 983154 983151 983140 983157 983139 983156 983145 983151 983150983156 983151 983156 983144 983141 983150 983141 983159 983141 983140 983145 983156 983145 983151 983150








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1048626



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983152 983137 983154 983156 983145

The Life



25

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983156 983137 983138 983148 983141 983151 983142 983139 983151 983150 983156 983141 983150 983156 983155


Foreword 983089983091


983089 Te Heroine 983090983093



983092 Chicago Days 983093983095



Part II Te Songs 983089983091983093


983097 Bumble Bee 983089983093983093

983089983088 Crime 983089983094983095



983089983091 Doors 983090983089983091

983089983092 Dirty Dozens 983090983089983097

983089983093 Duets 983090983090983095

983089983094 Food and Cooking 983090983092983089

983089983095 Horses 983090983092983097

983089983096 rains and ravel 983090983093983095

983089983097 Mad Love 983090983095983097

983090983088 Work 983090983096983097



Appendices 983091983088983095


Performances 983091983088983097

WPA Interview 983091983089983091



Discography 983091983092983096

Notes 983091983093983090 Index 983091983097983093



11

983145 983150 983156 983154 983151 983140 983157 983139 983156 983145 983151 983150983156 983151 983156 983144 983141 983150 983141 983159 983141 983140 983145 983156 983145 983151 983150








13

983142 983151 983154 983141 983159 983151 983154 983140





1048626



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The Life



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THE HEROINE











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Appendices 983091983088983095


Performances 983091983088983097

WPA Interview 983091983089983091



Discography 983091983092983096

Notes 983091983093983090 Index 983091983097983093



11

983145 983150 983156 983154 983151 983140 983157 983139 983156 983145 983151 983150983156 983151 983156 983144 983141 983150 983141 983159 983141 983140 983145 983156 983145 983151 983150








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introduction and first two chapters of woman with guitar: memphis minnie's blues

Documents