Blues  •  Early Acoustic Blues

Acoustic Memphis Blues

Overview Artists Albums Songs

The Memphis style of acoustic country blues is a most distinctive form, and is historically important for the rise of two distinct changes it brought to the music. First was the rise in popularity of the jug band, a style of lighthearted blues played on homemade instruments with a pronounced Dixieland jazz feel to it. The second influence -- and perhaps most important -- was the beginnings of assigning parts to guitarists for solo (lead) and rhythm work, a now-commonplace form of arranging that is part and parcel of all modern day blues bands. This version of Memphis blues was heavily tied to the local medicine show and vaudeville traditions, lasting well into the late '30s. Because of its proximity to Mississippi and the Delta, slide guitar work also crops up in acoustic Memphis blues from time to time, though in nowhere the proportion that it does in other genres.