Lizzie Douglas was born in Algiers, Louisiana, a neighborhood bordering the west bank of New Orleans in 1897. Also known as the 15th Ward, Algiers barely survived to begin the 20th century when a major fire leveled the neighborhood in 1895. It’s hard not to make obvious the strong allegorical nuances that result from being born of this kind of historical struggle. What becomes of Douglas’ musical legacy appears much like a phoenix emerging from the ruins as part and product of the Mississippi Delta’s continued conflict with both Mother Nature and long-standing social inequalities. However, the story of her Lizzie Douglas’ musical legacy develops more strongly after she left NOLA for Memphis, TN around the age of thirteen.
Having spent her early childhood developing a strong musical skill set in banjo and guitar, she quickly acclimating to the already burgeoning music scene in Memphis. She spent most of her time on Beale Street, the hot spot of local talent and of the only places where women were allowed to participate in music as public performers. Douglas’ unconventional spirit of personal freedom and independence eventually compelled her to leave Tennessee after being there about a decade. She used this time to travel through the United States busking on street corners and performing in the Ringling Brothers Circus.
This experience helped her build a strong reputation as a capable and prolific musician when she finally returned to Tennessee as a young adult. She married Kansas Joe McCoy (pictured with her to the right), another Memphis blues artist, and began co-writing and performing with him. In the decade of the 1930′s she changed her stage name to “Memphis Minnie,” after gaining a recording contract from New York City’s Columbia Records. Here she began sharing her music with the world. With the ability to record her songs under a major label she introduced the Blues to both a white audience as well as well as African American urbanites like Langston Hughes.
With a career spanning over three decades, it’s difficult to summarize the impact that Memphis Minnie has had on popular music. The legacy of her talent certainly casts an influential shadow over almost every person to pick up a guitar since. It’s difficult to imagine a musical age so long ago, but it existed, and she helped invent it in spirit and sound decades before it would be called by it’s name: rock and roll. Among her recorded material is a catalogue of nearly two hundred songs either written by her or penned with a select few.
Many of her accomplishments also include risky and unconventional musical “firsts.” For example, she embraced technology and innovation, understanding the potential that amplification would have on live performance, which is the ability to project over large crowds. Something we take for granted now every time we see a musician plug-in at a concert. As a result of her innovative vision, she became the first blues artist to adopt the electric guitar, showcasing the instrument in her live performances and recordings, even before artists like Muddy Waters had a chance to standardize it’s popularity. She was also the first to utilize the instrumental arrangement of electric guitar, bass, drums and piano, which now defines most early blues and rock and roll production.
As the first blues musician to adopt the National Tricone resonator guiar in her performances, she later become the first to champion the wood bodied National in the early 1940’s. The percussive sound and warm tones of this guitar define her sound and we’re happy to share with you our very own 1950′s “Californian” model archtop. Kept in the studio for over 25 years, our National is a collectors dream and certainly one of the most remarkable guitars we have in-house right now. Come in and check it out for yourself.
