Music Break: Revisit a Celebration of the Music of Memphis Minnie
Presented by the New York Guitar Festival
Originally Aired: Monday, June 22, 2020
Overview
Watch an encore video stream of the New York Guitar Festival’s 20th anniversary show, recorded on our stage in 2019 in celebration of the music of Memphis Minnie and hosted by John Schaefer of WNYC’s New Sounds.
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.”
Featuring 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.
Watch a video stream on this page at 1pm ET.
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