Memphis blues

The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows and was associated with Beale Street, the main entertainment area in Memphis.

It was played on simple, sometimes homemade, instruments such as harmonicas, violins, mandolins, banjos, and guitars, backed by washboards, kazoo, guimbarde and jugs blown to supply the bass.

After World War II, as African Americans left the Mississippi Delta and other impoverished areas of the South for urban areas, many musicians gravitated to the blues scene in Memphis, changing the classic Memphis blues sound.

Sun recorded Howlin' Wolf (before he moved to Chicago), Willie Nix, Ike Turner, B.

"[4] Musicians associated with Sun Records included Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson and Pat Hare.