"The Story of Memphis Minnie", painting by Amy Crehore (click on image to enlarge)
I love tobacco-chewing, badass Lizzie Douglas a.k.a. Memphis Minnie. She could play guitar circles around the boys. She made a hot team with Kansas Joe McCoy. In this large work, which took me 6 months to paint back in the early 90's, I painted a tribute to them and their song, "Bumble Bee Blues" (1929). On the left, is the young Lizzie "Kid" Douglas who played the streets and even joined the Ringling Bros circus for a time, and in the middle, is Minnie as a strong and sexy solo artist with her National guitar. She was one of the great blues artists of all time.