Big Band, Blues, Soul, Rock&Roll,Rockabilly in West Memphis, Ar.
Memphis was the hub for all that in the earlymid 1900's. The hard life of the South with cotton pickin and hoeing and the related hardships of the lower class whites and blacks, sharecropping, and tenent farming led to music being a way to lift the spirits and way out of poverty. Music was big in post WWII in the Mid South. One problem was the iron fisted rule of one man, Boss E.H.Crump. He ruled Memphis and most of Tn. from 1910 to 1950. All the legitimate niteclubs closed at 12:00. The Clubs in West Memphis stayed open till dawn. On the east end of West Memphis their were 4 or five clubs that accomadated the Memphis clientele. Country Western, Big Band, Blues Clubs ruled the nights with song, dance, gambling etc. Along the Miss. River, there was an epicenter of music that became the heart and soul of American music. Memphis got famous, Helena was well known, somehow the fame never reached West Memphis, but the music did in those years from 1945-1960.
Memphis was the hub for all that in the earlymid 1900's. The hard life of the South with cotton pickin and hoeing and the related hardships of the lower class whites and blacks, sharecropping, and tenent farming led to music being a way to lift the spirits and way out of poverty. Music was big in post WWII in the Mid South. One problem was the iron fisted rule of one man, Boss E.H.Crump. He ruled Memphis and most of Tn. from 1910 to 1950. All the legitimate niteclubs closed at 12:00. The Clubs in West Memphis stayed open till dawn. On the east end of West Memphis their were 4 or five clubs that accomadated the Memphis clientele. Country Western, Big Band, Blues Clubs ruled the nights with song, dance, gambling etc. Along the Miss. River, there was an epicenter of music that became the heart and soul of American music. Memphis got famous, Helena was well known, somehow the fame never reached West Memphis, but the music did in those years from 1945-1960.