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Memphis Minnie McCoy ( June 3 , 1897 – August 6 , 1973 ) was an American Blues musician. Born Lizzie Douglas in of the Memphis Jug Band , Joe McCoy (a.k.a. "Kansas Joe") later of the Harlem Hamfats , and Ernest Lawlers (a.k.a. "Little Son Joe"). After learning to play guitar and banjo as a child, at the age of thirteen she ran away from home to Memphis , Tennessee , playing guitar in nightclubs and on the street as Lizzie "Kid" Douglas. The next year, she joined the Ringling Brothers circus. Her second marriage and recording debut came in 1929 , both with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records Talent Scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop in their distinctive "Memphis style", and their song "Bumble Bee" became a hit. In the 1930s she moved to Chicago, Illinois with Joe. She and McCoy broke up in 1935 and by 1939 she was with Little Son Joe, with whom she recorded nearly 200 records. In the 1940s she formed a touring Vaudeville company. From the 1950s on, however, public interest in her music declined and in 1957 she and Little Son Joe returned to Memphis . In 1961 , Joe died and Minnie suffered a stroke which forced her to spend the rest of her life in nursing homes until she died in 1973 . Luckily, she was able to see her reputation revived in the 1960s as part of the general revival of interest in the blues. In 1980 , Memphis Minnie was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame. SONGS " When The Levee Breaks ", a 1929 Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song, was later covered (with slightly altered lyrics) by Led Zeppelin and released in 1971 on (Zeppelin's Fourth Album ). Other songs by Memphis Minnie include: "Bumble Bee", "Hoodoo Lady" and "I Want Something For You". EXTERNAL LINKS
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