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(Above photo credit: photos courtesy of the artists)

For the New York Guitar Festival’s 20th anniversary, the Festival and WNYC’s New Sounds combine forces once again, this time for a celebration of the music of Memphis Minnie.  

A supremely influential and pioneering guitarist, Minnie was one of the first blues artists to go electric in 1942, and is considered a crucial link connecting acoustic Delta blues with the electrified Chicago sound. Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton and Muddy Waters have acknowledged Minnie’s influence. Bonnie Raitt called her “one of American musical history’s most vibrant and pioneering artists.” 

This special event will feature short sets by the multiple Grammy Award-winning blues-rocker Fantastic Negrito; the Granadian-Canadian singer, guitarist and banjo player Kaia Kater; Rafiq Bhatia, who refers to his genre-blurring music as “maximalist minimalism”; and Amythyst Kiah, the self-proclaimed “Southern Gothic alt-country blues” singer. 

New Sounds host John Schaefer will speak with the musicians onstage.