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Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues

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This much-needed study documents the life and work of Lizzie "Kid" Douglas, preeminent blues vocalist and guitarist, c. 1920-1950. Poets will appreciate the careful transcriptions and interpretations of Minnie's lyrics; scholars, the meticulous research; and feminists, the story line of a rough n' ready woman making her way in the music business. Fifty photographs of Minnie, her record contracts and sheet music, and period advertisements, further vivify this portrait of an African-American musical legend

There are so many poorly researched segments in this biography, that to list them would be too lengthy. Half of the book is biography, the other half academic deconstructions of Minnie's songs. The first 30 years of her life is nearly absent; questions remain unanswered even after that. The one good thing about this work, is that there's all sorts of room left for someone to write a definitive--or even near definitive--biography of this great blues singer and song writer.

The first part of this book is a useful sketch of Memphis Minnie's life. It sets out the basics of her life history, and we gain an appreciation for her skill as a blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. The second part of the book is mainly useful for the content of the lyrics and the discography. The authors' interpretive commentary on various blues lyrics often leaves a bit to be desired. At times, the intepretation of the symbolic expression yields intriguing ways to think about the blues tunes. There also are unifying threads that pull together some of the themes. The major weaknesses, however, relate to the ways that the authors read too much into the lyrics rather than elucidating compelling conclusions by reading meaning from the lyrics. The writing also foregrounds some ideas from literary theory in a style that is clunky and pedantic. The analysis, thus, often distracts rather than embellishes one's appreciation of the poetic skill and clever humor in Memphis Minnie's tunes. The commentary also sometimes has a tone that comes off as both haughty and naive at the same time. For example, the Garons make unsubstantiated claims that they can't support. A glaring one is the way they chastize folklorists for assuming that there is only one meaning to a text. This argument doesn't hold up, as for at least 4 decades folklorists have been looking at meaning as an emergent quality that varies with performance; furthermore, folklorists were writing about polysemy long before anyone even mentioned the term "postmodernism." Much of the analysis suffers from this mixture of seemingly bold claims that really lack good evidence for their support. Nevertheless, the book is an introduction to a remarkable musician, and the discography is a good one.