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Bridging the Gap: 5 Contemporary Women Artists for Fans of Memphis Music Legends

While the music industry has often been criticized as a boy’s club (and for good reason), women in Memphis have been at the forefront of various genres since the very beginning. In the 1930s, Memphis Minnie earned a reputation as one of the country’s most formidable guitar players, prompting blues legend Big Bill Broonzy to say that she could “pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I’ve ever heard.” In the 1950s, Cordell Jackson became the first woman to produce, arrange, engineer, and promote music on her own rock and roll label.