| Memphis blues music began in the 1920s with | | | | The actual jug that the players used was |
| musicians who lived in the Memphis area like Frank | | | | generally made from glass or stoneware. Jug |
| Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and | | | | players would buzz the lips of the jug from about |
| Memphis Minnie. This style of music was most | | | | an inch or two away from it and were able to |
| popular in vaudeville and medicine shows | | | | create different pitches by changing their lip |
| throughout the Memphis, Tennessee area. Beale | | | | tension. |
| Street was an area in Memphis where all of the | | | | Jug bands were commonplace in Memphis blues |
| main shows and music were performed. The | | | | bands for years, but after World War II, electric |
| history of Beale Street has been detailed in many | | | | instruments began to be used much more often |
| books over the last ten years which has | | | | by Memphis blues musicians. Many African |
| increased its popularity and appeal. | | | | Americans, who had been living in the Mississippi |
| Although most blues bands in Memphis at the time | | | | Delta among some other impoverished areas in |
| were based around guitars, there were jug bands | | | | the south, began to leave their homes in search |
| as well that were wildly popular. A jug band is a | | | | of more urban areas. At this time, many |
| group that centers around a jug player while the | | | | musicians ended up in the heart of the Memphis |
| other members play homemade instruments. | | | | blues scene and the classic style of the Memphis |
| Typically, the homemade instruments are ordinary | | | | blues sound began to change. |
| objects that have been adapted or modified to | | | | B.B. King, Ike Turner, Howlin Wolf and Willie Nix |
| make sound. Some examples of this are the | | | | were some of the artists who performed in |
| washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe, and | | | | West Memphis on Beale Street at this time and |
| comb and tissue paper. When jug bands first | | | | were responsible for a number of the classic |
| came onto the music scene, they included | | | | electric blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll |
| mandolins or guitars that were made from the | | | | songs. They created a lot of records in these |
| necks of discarded guitars which were then | | | | genres for the label Sun Records. These musicians |
| fastened on to large gourds. The gourds were | | | | had a very strong influence on blues at the time |
| made by flattening one side and then carving a | | | | and we can still see their impact on rock and roll |
| sound hole into the side that was just flattened. | | | | music today. |
| Sometimes, banjos were made in the same way. | | | | |