As you cross the Mississippi River into Memphis, you’re welcomed by a vintage billboard identifying the city as “home of the blues and the birthplace of rock and roll”. Elvis Presley and other 1950’s Memphis musicians defined early rock and roll music, and Beale Street is considered the true home of the blues. World famous for playing blues music since the early 1900’s, Beale Street is a vibrant spot for nightlife, food and entertainment. Its location on the National Register of Historic Places points to the rich history and significance of the street. Named after an historic Civil War military hero in the mid 1800’s, the street eventually became a haven for early blues and entertainment. In the early 1920’s, the east end of the street was residential, the west commercial and the middle was called “the underworld,” home to saloons and entertainment.
The rich history of Beale Street has inspired contemporary artists to write and perform songs about the area. Joni Mitchell’s Furry Sings the Blues offers a nostalgic view of Beale Street in its heyday:
Old Beale Street is coming down
Sweeties’ Snack Bar, boarded up now
And Egles the Tailor and the Shine Boy’s gone
Faded out with ragtime blues
Handy’s cast in bronze
And he’s standing in a little park
With a trumpet in his hand
Like he’s listening back to the good old bands
And the click of high-heeled shoes
Old Furry sings the blues…
By 1965 the west part of the street was no longer an active waterfront and the eastern mansions had been replaced by commercial buildings. The central area was under strict patrol by the Memphis Police Department for bootlegging and gambling; a substantial amount of the beloved nightlife was gone.
Women also played a role on historic Beale Street. B.B. King had a female saxophonist, Evelyn Young, who accompanied him on tours throughout the United States. Ernstein Mitchell remembers “carloads” of tired and hungry Beale Street musicians stopping by her restaurant after their performances for chili and conversation in the early morning hours. While not in the forefront on the Blues stage, these women nonetheless contributed to the impact Beale Street had on the people of the area and the contemporary artists who frequented it.
The Beale Street Music Festival
The Beale Street Music Festival is a slice of Memphis in May, an international festival that began in 1977. The music festival takes place the first weekend of May in Tom Lee Park, which is located at the bottom of Beale Street on the banks of the Mississippi River. Each year, crowds of more than 100,000 people gather to listen to a wide variety of music, including the Blues. In the past, the festival has had a Tennessee Lottery Blues Tent for those interested in Blues music. However, an addition was made to the festival in 2008 for the inclusion of the SoCo Blues Shack, marking the growth in Blues popularity.
Two prominent female Blues singers who have performed at the Beale Street Music Festival in the recent past are Bettye LaVette and Koko Taylor. Bettye LaVette performed at the 2008 festival and has been honored many times over the years for her talent. She was awarded Comeback Album of the Year in 2004 at the WC Handy Blues Awards for the song “A Woman Like Me.” Koko Taylor, a Memphis native, performed at the Festival in 2007. Taylor has won countless awards for her music including a Grammy and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1997.
To find out more information about The Beale Street Music Festival, visit the official website: http://memphisinmay.org/bsmf.htm.
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Some Popular Venues for Female Artists Today
Silky O’Sullivans--Barbara Blue Silky O’Sullivans is located on the historic Beale Street in downtown Memphis. Barbara performs five nights a week and is quite a hit, combining originality and soulful tunes. Catch her on a Saturday night and you might witness the human jukebox act she calls “Blues Singer Gone Awry.” She’ll have the entire crowd lined up to buy CDs by the end of the night.
Check out her website for the full story: http://www.barbarablue.com/
Mollie Fontaine Lounge—Di Anne Price
The Mollie Fontaine Lounge is located in the historic Victorian Village of Memphis. The atmosphere is very homey—there are comfy, mismatched chairs that fill the house, art covering the walls and a mixture of antique and retro lighting fills the rooms. In the parlor, there is a grand piano where Di Anne Price tickles the ivories Thursday- Saturday 8:30-11:00. Arrive early to grab a stool around the piano and enjoy Price’s sultry voice singing low-down blues to sophisticated jazz.
Check out her Myspace page to get a taste of Di Anne Price’s smoky sound: http://www.myspace.com/dianneprice
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Wild Bill’s
Wild Bill’s Blues Café is one of the last Juke Joints left standing in the Memphis area. Even though this hole in the wall bar is only about 70 square feet big, it draws a large crowd resulting in sometimes one hundred people crammed in at once. The biggest attraction is the band that performs there on weekends, the Memphis Soul Survivors. This local band plays a range of jazz music, blues music, and Memphis soul. One of the greatest aspects of Wild Bill’s is the diverse crowd; it consists of a mixture of blacks, whites, males, and females alike. One of the women who frequently sings with the band calls herself Ms. Nickki, born and raised in North Mississippi, who found herself in Memphis after deciding to pursue blues music. One of the Memphis female musicians she was greatly influenced by was Aretha Franklin, who contributed to Ms. Nikki’s love for the blues. The Memphis Soul Survivors are undoubtedly one of the best authentic blues bands you could ever hear. Along with the unbelievably talented musicians, Wild Bill’s atmosphere is a welcoming one, it seems to be completely color and gender blind. As the tiny dance floor quickly fills up, people do not hesitate to dance in the aisles in between tables. Young or old, black or white, male or female, Wild Bill’s is a place where anyone in Memphis can go to have a drink, relax, and enjoy the great blues music with others are all there to do the same.
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WHER
On October 29, 1955 a groundbreaking radio station hit the airwaves at 1430 on the AM dial. This station was known as WHER, which was all-female and the first of its kind. WHER was the brainchild of one Sam Phillips who used a portion of his profits from the sale of Elvis Presley’s recording contract to RCA Records to finance the station. Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson provided the remaining necessary amount, as well as the stations first home, in a part of the third Holiday Inn ever built. WHER was staffed almost exclusively by women and even the station got a make-over. One early report stated that the entire studio was feminized. The women referred to themselves as jockettes, the studio was called the “doll’s den”, murals of fashion decorated the equipment room, and the stationary was perfumed. Women read the news, conducted interviews with local celebrities, played music, sold and created commercials, and acted as the producers and directors of programming. The station lasted longer than anyone expected going off the air in 1966 after an eleven year run.
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“Memphis” Minnie McCoy
“Memphis” Minnie McCoy was born in Algiers, Louisiana, on June 3rd, 1897, with the given name of Lizzie Douglas. At the age of 7, she and her family moved to Memphis. A bit of a child prodigy, she had mastered both the banjo and the guitar by the age of 15. To make money and escape work she played guitar on the street corners of Memphis. In her late teens she joined the circus and toured the south in the Ringling Brothers circus as a musician. After some time she met and married a fellow bluesman, Kansas Joe McCoy, with whom she would play guitar duets. She was discovered in 1929 by a Colombia Records scout while playing with her husband in a Beale Street barbershop. After this they moved to Chicago where she recorded many songs. One of which, “Bumble Bee,” remained among her most popular songs throughout the years. Although their marriage deteriorated over the next few years, and ended in 1935, her career skyrocketed. McCoy went on to marry twice more, to Casey Bill Weldon and Ernest “Little Son Joe” Lawlers, both noted musicians. McCoy’s talent on the guitar has been described as incomparable, and her skill was said to be that of a man’s and rarely challenged. She created a unique sound for herself; a combination of her Louisiana country roots and Memphis blues. McCoy passed away on August 6, 1973, but her music remains extremely popular today. In her lifetime she recorded almost 200 titles and was one of the first twenty performers to be inducted in the Hall of Fame at the first W.C. Handy Awards in 1980.
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Hattie Hart
Hattie Hart was a native Memphian, said to be born around 1900. She worked as a solo artist and also as vocalist of the Memphis Jug Band. Additionally, she is regarded as one of the best known singers on Beale Street during the 1920s and ‘30s. Her voice is said to have had a high vibrato and a wide range of emotions. Hart was also a composer and wrote songs that dealt with love, sex, cocaine, and voodoo. Hart was apparently also known for the parties that she threw. After the Great Depression had a devastating effect on Beale Street, Hart, like others, moved to Chicago to continue her musical career. She had a brief recording stint but then seems to have disappeared from the public eye altogether.
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Aretha Franklin
As the winner of twenty-one Grammy Awards, twenty #1 R&B singles, forty-five “Top 40” hits, and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Aretha Franklin is truly “The Queen of Soul.” Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis on March 25, 1942 and grew up in Detroit. She was the daughter of a reverend and grew up singing church music. At age fourteen, she released her first album “The Gospel Sound of Aretha Franklin”. Franklin signed with Columbia records in 1960 but wasunable to release her true soul talent until she signed with Atlantic in 1966. She mesmerized listeners with her powerful voice on her first hit album, “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You)” which included her most famous “Respect” (“Franklin’s greatest triumph – and an enduring milestone in popular music”). She continued her success with albums “Aretha Arrives,” (1967) “Lady Soul,” (1968) “Aretha Now,” (1968) “Spirit in the Dark,” (1970) “Young, Gifted and Black,” (1972) and “Live at Fillmore West” (1971). Franklin continued to make hits in the ‘80s and ‘90s with her second Number One “I Knew You Were Waiting (for me)” (a duet with George Michael) in 1987, “Through the Storm” (a duet with Elton John) in 1989, and “A Rose is Still a Rose” (written by Lauryn Hill) in 1998. Franklin’s music showcases a soul-filled mezzo-soprano voice that expresses her feminine and spiritual strength; she continues to be recognized as one of the most influential and successful female music artists of all time. In fact, in 2008, Rolling Stone honored her by placing her at number one on its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time.
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Estelle Axton
Estelle Axton was born on September 11, 1918, in Middleton, Tennessee and moved to Memphis as a teacher in the mid-1950s. In 1958, Axton mortgaged her house in order to raise money for her brother, Jim Stewart’s, new record business: Satellite Records. After raising $2500 to purchase equipment, she took out a second mortgage to finance the new shop on McLemore Avenue and became an equal partner. When it was found that an L.A. record company previously owned the name “Satellite Records,” Axton and her brother changed their company name to “Stax,” the “St” from “Stewart,” her brother’s last name, and “Ax” from “Axton”. Stax Records found its first hit with singer Carla Thomas and later with artists including Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes. Axton ran the record shop, giving advice to young musicians and getting record feedback from customers. She was the “heart and soul” of the shop, affectionately referred to as “Lady A.” Additionally, Axton also co-wrote “Heartbreak Hotel” for Elvis Presley. When she left Stax in 1969 to establish Fretone Records, she was greatly missed by employees and customers. She was announced by The Recording Academy as a recipient of the Trustee’s Award in 1996 and died in February 2004. Although Axton is most widely recognized for her contributions to Stax Records, she also was the founder of the Memphis Songwriters Association, which she established in 1973, and a large contributor to the Music Industries of Memphis, which later became Memphis Music Association (MMA). MMA was created to help make local Memphis music a force to be reckoned with once again. It is still in existence today.
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Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples was born in Chicago on July 10, 1939. Her singing career began with her family gospel group, “The Staple Singers” in 1950. They made their first hit in 1956 with “Uncloudy Day” with the Vee-Jay label, and after a group tour in 1957 became nationally famous for their spiritual influence and talent. Motivated by their father’s friend, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Staple Singers began singing protest civil rights music in the mid ‘60s. Some of their most inspiring songs include “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?” The group joined the Stax record label in 1968 and then proceeded to produce eight “Top 40” songs between 1971 and 1975, including the #1 hits “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.” Staples began her solo career with Stax records in 1969 and has since worked with various artists such as Bob Dylan, The Band, Ray Charles, Nona Hendryx, George Jones, Natalie Merchant, Los Lobos, Dr. John, Aretha Franklin, Mary Stuart, Ann Peebles, and many others. She was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and is included as one of VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll.” Her voice has been sampled by several popular hip-hop artists, including Ludacris and ice Cube. From her gospel roots to her solo pop star status, Mavis Staples is renowned for her inspiration of spirituality and social change. She continues her civil rights activism today.
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Carla Thomas, “Queen of Memphis Soul
Carla Thomas, daughter of Rufus Thomas, was born in Memphis on December 21, 1942. She recorded her first hit, “Because I Love You,” a duet with her father, at seventeen. Her first solo success came shortly thereafter in 1961 with the single “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)” at Stax Records. This album is Memphis’ first nationwide hit soul album. She was with Stax from the beginning, giving the label its first real hit, and contributed to the record label’s growing success. Because of her involvement at Stax, she is widely regarded as the Queen of Memphis Soul. After reaching the Top Ten with her first single, she produced twenty-two more singles that made national charts. These singles include the very famous “I’ll Bring It on Home to You,” “Let Me Be Good to You,” and “B-A-B-Y.” Her duet album with Otis Redding, “King and Queen” included the song “Tramp,” which made #2 on Billboard’s R&B charts in 1967. She continued to record with Stax Records until the early ‘70s, and was given the Pioneer Award in 1993 by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.
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Deanie Parker
Deanie Parker became part of Stax Records in 1963, when she entered a talent contest and won an audition with the studio. Although her recordings did not meet much success, she stayed with Stax and became the label’s public relations director in 1964. She worked as Director of Publicity until 1975, working with photography, credit and biography write-ups, editing, and press correspondence. She also wrote several songs for Stax artists such as Carla Thomas, the Mad Lads, William Bell, and Albert King. Parker is now President and CEO of Soulsville, U.S.A., and is working to rebuild the Soulsville Foundation. She also sits on the boards of the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, a Smithsonian museum dedicated to highlighting musical contributors that overcame racial or social hurdles;“Play It Again, Memphis,” a non-profit organization that collects and refurbishes musical instruments for children in Memphis; and the Tennessee Arts Commission, which aims at promoting the arrangement or arts and encouraging cultural interest in them.
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Hi Records
In the 1970's, there was not a better place to be recording soul music in Memphis than Hi Records. Hi Records began in 1957 as a rockabilly label by Ray Harris. It was quickly sold to Phillips International and in 1959, had its first hit with "Smokie Parts 1 and 2" by Bill Black. They soon became known as an instrumental label. As soulful sounds gained popularity in the 1960's, Hi Records turned to Willie Mitchell, a popular Memphis bandleader, to keep them current. Mitchell worked to produce Hi Rhythm, one of the world's greatest rhythm sections today. In 1970, Mitchell became the vice president and managing partner in the company. In the late 1960's, Ann Peebles and Al Green were added to the Hi label. Green recorded "Tired of Being Alone" which went to #7 on the R&B charts. Green and Peebles, along with other Hi artists turned out hits throughout the seventies. In 1977, Hi Records was sold to Al Bennett. His daughter, Adalah Bennett Shaw revived Hi Records in the 1990's with the help of supporters and fans such as Quentin Tarantino. Hi Records was home to artists such as Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, and Hi Rhythm. All of these artists are still performing for and entertaining people around the world.
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Ann Peebles
Ann Peebles was the leading female solo vocalist for the Memphis soul label Hi Records. She signed with the label in 1968. She co-wrote and sang many hits for Hi Records including "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" and "I Can't Stand the Rain." Some of Peebles songs have been covered by artists such as Paul Young and eruption, and she has been sampled by the hop-hop group Wu-Tang Clan and artist Missy Elliot. In 1989, Peebles joined forces with Willie Mitchell, the man who discovered her talent twenty years earlier, to produce her comeback album, Call Me. Peebles is still performing for audiences today. In 2006, she released Brand New Classics, an album of some of her greatest songs performed in the acoustic style.
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Joyce Cobb
Joyce Cobb has had an illustrious career in music with a large part based here in Memphis, TN. Although she started in Nashville, in the 1970s, with orchestral music, she can be found performing jazz and blues with her band most Sundays at the local Bosco’s Squared. Cobb’s musical career in Memphis began with the Stax Records company. Currently, a faculty member at University of Memphis, Cobb is working with Commercial Jazz and is frequently invited to perform with the Memphis Symphony. Joyce Cobb’s fame is attached to other contemporary popular acts as she has opened for TajMahal, The Temptations, Muddy Waters, Al Jarreau and Otis Clay. This celebrity has certainly extended past the period of The Temptations, however, as in 1992, Joyce Cobb was made “the first female to have a nightclub named in her honor on Beale Street.” Named Memphis’ “Best Local Singer” in the 2008 Memphis Flyer Reader’s Poll, Cobb’s career continues to expand throughout Memphis and beyond; you can find more information about Joyce Cobb, including the many awards she has won by viewing her profiles on Herschel Freeman Agency http://www.herschelfreemanagency.com/beale/beale.html or her MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/joycecobb.
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Ruby Wilson
In a short bio of Ms. Wilson, she is described as “the undisputed “Queen of Beale Street”, a Memphis legend who has taken the Delta blues and her powerful, emotional, unforgettable voice worldwide.” She has appeared in concert with some easily recognizable names: B.B. King, Ray Charles, Robert Goulet, The Four Tops, Jerry Butler, Willie Nelson, and Isaac Hayes as well in multiple feature films. Although she has been singing since the age of 16, Ruby Wilson spent years in another career and in other places before arriving in Memphis and launching her musical career.
Ruby Wilson can often be found in the B.B. King’s club on Beale Street here in Memphis. For more information on the life and current career of Ruby Wilson, see her profile at Resource Entertainment Group, http://www.regmemphis.com/artists/rubywilson/.
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Amy LaVere
Amy LaVere, like many musicians, has been greatly influenced by her time in Memphis. Another significant factor in her musical growth was her relationship with her former husband, upright bassist Gabe Kudela.
According to one, “It was love at first sight for Gabe and Amy, the couple married after a whirlwind romance of only three weeks. It's no wonder she caught the rockabilly bug and learned to play Gabe's upright bass. A year later, the couple moved to Memphis where they spent the next four years working Beale Street and anywhere else they could get a gig as the Gabe and Amy Show. … Like many great stories of the silver screen, heartache caught up with Amy leading to her split with rockabilly and Gabe in 2003. She found comfort in the music she was reared on as a child, the country roots of Haggard, Parton and Cash. Suddenly “Swingin' Doors” took on a whole new meaning for Amy. Angst became roadhouse scorn, love became a bittersweet memory and music was her liberator.”
LaVere’s various influences have succeeded in shaping a musical style that even she readily admits could only flourish in Memphis, because “Memphis doesn't allow you to be trite… It not only forces you to be original, it's an accepting and supportive place for that which may seem unusual anyplace else. There's very little music 'industry' here, but plenty of musical freedom."
You can hear Amy LaVere’s music on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/amylavere.
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Ms. Zeno
Performing at Silky’s Bar on Beal Street, “Mojo Queen” Ms. Zeno brings the spirit of the blues to audiences today. She has performed all over the world and recorded six CD’s over the past ten years.
Born VerlindaKertria Zeno, she began her musical career because of her grandfather, Forest Sam Zeno who was a blue’s artist and a one-man band. Her mother, Effilee Zeno was a gospel singer and a club owner who exposed her daughter to the musical world at a young age. At Northwestern State University, Ms. Zeno began to develop her technique. As her musical styling evolved and became more and more sophisticated, she developed a fascination for the earthy tones, modes and rhythms of the genre known to all of us as "The Blues". Her break came when blues singer lil’ Milton was so impressed with her delivery that he immediately began training the youthful prodigy to his act, 'The Angels' as an opening act. Others began to notice how she would sing with such emotion. Among her fans were several club owners on Beale Street which led to other jobs. The late Albert King got her a gig at 'B B Kings Club when it first opened. She was the female lead vocalist for the house band until management changed.
With her broad vocal range and influences of Etta James, Coco Taylor and Tina Turner, Ms. Zeno is sultry and seductive. Her personal philosophy is to "Make your audience and fans feel special; it does not matter how good you are, what hole you can fill, or what ideas you can bring to the stage with- out the support of people you're nothing. Singers come a dime a dozen, but everybody loves an entertainer. That's my philosophy. Everyone I've worked with can tell you that I can wake up the dead when I hit the stage. This is the thing that gives me the most pride in professionalism.”
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Alberta Hunter
Alberta Hunter was born on April 1st, 1895 in Memphis where she lived until she was about 12 years old. She either moved or ran away to Chicago when she was 12 years old to pursue her dream of singing the blues. She got a job in a rough club on the South side of Chicago where she got her start. Eventually she moved to New York after a stray bullet killed her piano player while on stage. Alberta married young but is said never to have spent more than a few years with him since she was a lesbian. Her success over her 60-year career is astounding. She sang with stars such as Lillian Hardin Armstrong, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington. In 1923 she became the first black singer to have a white band back her up, and often played in white clubs; no small feat considering the times. In 1927 she went to Europe to tour and became a huge success there as well. Alberta was inducted into both the Big Band and Jazz Halls of Fame. She is said to have written many of her own songs and allowed other artists to cover some of her work, such as Bessie Smith who had a hit with Alberta’s song, “Down Hearted Blues”. She stopped singing for about 20 years to work as a nurse in New York City but returned at the age of 82, only to have four more albums. Early on Alberta was easily recognized by her unique soprano voice, something that caught the attention of many, but after her return to the scene was praise for her new “dirty, gritty” voice that age had brought her. Her voice has been described as a melodious one that breathed of love and hate, laughed of lazy days and nights of gin, gambling, and women. Again she was hugely successful. Before her death in 1984, Alberta made important contributions to jazz, blues and pop music.
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Lillian Hardin Armstrong
Lillian Hardin Armstrong was a native Memphian and was a pianist, vocalist, arranger, and composer. As a child she had piano and organ lessons, but was taught by her mother and grandmother that the blues was too vulgar. Lillian was even beaten for possessing one of W.C. Handy’s records. She received degrees in Teaching and Music from Fisk University, the Chicago College of Music and the New York College of Music. She professional career began when her family moved to Chicago in 1917. In was in Chicago that she met the infamous Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, from whom she learned her trademark heavy handed rhythmic style. The Original New Orleans Creole Jazz Band presented her first serious band experience. They were very successful and played pure New Orleans style Jazz, drawing crowds of stars such as Bill Bojangles, Robinson, Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, and Sophie Tucker. Armstrong was invited to join the band King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, and was eventually joined by Louis Armstrong in 1922. This band is said to have been one of the most famous in Jazz history. Lillian and Louis married in 1924, but after their careers took different paths, divorced in 1938. She later played with a multitude of different bands and toured the United States and Europe. In 1971 she agreed to play at a concert in memory of Louis Armstrong, where she died on stage on August 27th. She had taught him the basics of reading music and wrote many songs for him, including his great hit, “Struttin’ With Some Barbeque.” “Call it what you want, blues, swing, jazz, it caught hold of me way back in Memphis and it looks like it won.” –Lillian Hardin Armstrong
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