'I'm a Bad Luck Woman' - Memphis Minnie

I'm a Bad Luck Woman - Memphis Minnie

I was working on a post about C.W. Stoneking (still in the works), but in researching his influences I saw he credited the music of Memphis Minnie as inspiration. My library, as it turns out, has been sadly lacking her music. A few hours of listening and purchasing later, I've addressed that problem. The limited sample I've listened to so far is her earlier work. Later, as blues became amplified in Chicago, she started playing with an electric guitar instead of an acoustic. She was one of the musicians who changed her sound as the technology and the times/tastes changed.

I like her song "I'm a Bad Luck Woman" for it's energy. It has an infectious groove (and mostly because I've been practicing a lot of Struttin' recently I want to Strut to this song). The lyrics I found pretty humorous, sort of tongue and cheek about a lack of success in a relationship. Though I do not know who her accompaniment is here, I think it is her playing with one other musician to help create the driving beat.

About the artist herself, Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglass in 1897. Her recording career spanned the 1920s to 50s, recording for labels Decca, Vocalion, Okeh, Bluebird, and Columbia Records. She recording over 200 sides during that time.

She ended up in Chicago in the 1930s. She and Big Bill Broonzy had a cuttin' contest. Broonzy is often cited as a one of the key figures in 20th century blues music. Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy each played a couple of their songs, and at the end she was judged to be the winner. She and Broonzy became friends and would often play together locally and also tour.

She would be in and out of Chicago, living alternatively in Indianapolis and Detroit in the 40s, and returning to Chicago in the 50s. As mentioned in the beginning, she started playing electric guitar in the early 40s. She would play at Chicago's 708 club, often joined by Big Bill Broonzy, Snooky Pryor, and/or Sunnyland Slim.

She would move to Mississippi in the 50s, as demand for her music began to decrease. She played for Big Bill Broonzy's funeral, was active in the local radio stations, and encouraging women to pursue blues music. She died in 1973 after suffering a stroke. Bonnie Raitt would later provide a headstone for Memphis Minnie, in 1996.

I think it's telling that a website devoted to her history poses the question:

Why has this musician, with her enormous body of recordings, who was well-loved by the Black blues audiences of the ’30s and ’40s been comparatively ignored by later, whiter audiences? Perhaps it’s because Memphis Minnie doesn’t fit the myth of the young, tragic, haunted blues man and she is too complex of a character to be easily marketed. She shaped a life very different from the limited possibilities offered to the women of her time. She lived a long life, was at her best in middle age, and would spit tobacco wearing a chiffon ball gown.

More fun than reading my synopsis, Del Rey wrote a song called 'Memphis Minnie' that catalogues Minnie's life. It is definitely worth a listen.
Memphis Minnie - Del Rey

Other Version:
I'm a Bad Luck Woman - Emiliana Torrini

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Minnie
http://memphisminnie.com/
http://www.mtzionmemorialfund.org/p/memphis-minnie.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bill_Broonzy