Frank Stokes

Frank Stokes

Frank Stokes (1888 – 1955) Born in 1888 in Whitehaven Tennessee, Frank Stokes began playing around 1900, and pursued his career in Memphis, where he became one of the city’s most popular entertainers. Between 1927 and 1929, he recorded thirty-six sides for two labels, usually in tandem with his accompanist Dan Sane. His best-known tune “Crump Don’t Low It,” which referred the mayor of Memphis and was nationally associated with composer W.C. Handy. Stokes died in 1955.

You Shall - Frank Stokes

Old Sometimes Blues - Frank Stokes

It's A Good Thing - Frank Stokes

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Leroy Carr (1905 – 1935) Leroy Carr, one of the first blues singers to use an understood vocal delivery, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1905. Scrapper Blackwell (1903 – 1962) Francis (Scrapper) Blackwell was born in 1903 and learned guitar in childhood, eventually developing a delicate vibrato blended with string-snapping. The Indianapolis-based team of Carr and Blackwell popularized the piano-guitar duet. They made more than one hundred sides between 1928 and Carr’s death in 1935, including the famous “How Long Blues.”

Mean Mistreater Mama - Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Barrelhouse Woman No.2 - Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Kokomo Blues - Scrapper Blackwell

Papa Wants A Cookie - Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell

Memphis Minnie

Memphis Minnie

Memphis Minnie (1897 – 1973) Lizzie Douglas, born in Algiers, Louisiana, was raised in Memphis, and learned guitar at the age of eleven. As Kid Douglas, she toured the South from 1916 onward, returning to Memphis in the late 1920s under the name Memphis Minnie. An accomplished guitarist and gifted songwriter, she recorded over 150 sides between 1929 and 1941. Most were solo blues, but she also teamed for duets with her second husband, guitar Kansas Joe McCoy, and her third husband, guitarist Little Son Joe Lawlar.

Nothing In Rambling - Memphis Minnie

Dirty Mother For You - Memphis Minnie