Memphis Blues

Memphis blues is the blues tradition of Memphis, Tennessee, which developed in two distinct phases. Its first era, centred on Beale Street in the 1920s and 1930s, was dominated by jug bands and acoustic guitar duos, in which blown jugs, kazoos and washtub bass joined guitars and harmonicas in loose, danceable arrangements coloured by ragtime and vaudeville. Its second era arrived after the Second World War, when musicians such as *Howlin' Wolf* and *B.B. King* electrified the music in the studios of *Sam Phillips*, producing a raw, heavily amplified sound built on distorted guitar, pounding drums and shouted vocals that fed directly into rock and roll.