Louisiana Jukebox Cafe

Happy “Heavenly” Birthday to blues vocalist and guitarist Lizzie Douglas Lawlers…..better known as “Memphis Minnie.”
She was born, however, on the west bank of New Orleans, in the Orleans Parish town of Algiers, on June 3, 1896.
When she was seven, the family moved to Walls, Mississippi, just south of Memphis.
When she was eight, she got a guitar for Christmas, and then began playing the banjo by age 10.
At age 13 in 1910, she ran away from home and started playing on the corners on Beale Street in Memphis.
After running out of money and returning home to the family farm, she got a job with ‘Ringling Brothers Circus’ at age 16 and sharpened her guitar playing while touring the South with a 3-ring circus group between 1916 and 1920.
After her mother died, Little Lizzie returned to Beale Street to start her musical career.
She was married three times, to three different blues musicians, first to Mississippi-born Joe McCoy (a.k.a. ‘Kansas Joe,’ then to Arkansas-born recording artists Casey Bill Weldon, and then finally to Arkansas-born Ernest Lawlers, better known as ‘Little Son Joe.’ Lawlers accompanied Memphis Minnie on almost all the records she released during the 20-year stretch between 1939 and 1959. He passed away two years later in 1961.
Out of her first nine recordings between 1929 and 1933, seven were under the billing of ‘Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie.’ The first two 78 rpm shellacs were on the Columbia label, beginning with “I Want That” & “Bumble Bee” and then “When The Levee Breaks” & “That Will Be Alright.”
“When The Levee Breaks’ was made famous by the English band Led Zeppelin, appearing on their fourth untitled album in 1971.
Memphis Minnie's first two ‘solo billings’ came in 1930 on the Vocalion label with “I’m Talking About You/Bumble Bee,” and the “I’m Going Tom Make My Biscuits/Tango Blues.”
She had some 50 records under her belt by 1939, when her new husband ‘Little Son Joe’ (Lawlers) came into her life and her music.
In 1939, they recorded their first record together on the Vocalion label with Memphis Minnie on one side with “Poor And Wandering Woman Blues,” while Little Son Joe sang “Key To The World” on the flip side.
They would go on to record more than 20 more records until 1959. In all, she recorded some 200 songs.
Along with the Led Zeppelin cover of “When The Levee Breaks,” which they did alter some of the lyrics and melody, Jefferson Airplane covered “My Chauffeur Blues and Me” on their debut album, in which Signe Anderson was the band’s lead vocalist before Grace Slick took over.
Beginning in 1964, more than 50 compilation albums of her works have been produced.
Known as ‘Mamie Smith’ early on, her first band was ‘Mamie Smith and Her Jumping Boys.’
Her group was later known as ‘Memphis Minnie and Her Combo’ and then ‘Memphis Minnie and Her Jugband.’
At times, she also went by ‘Gospel Minnie,’ ‘Lizzie Douglas,’ Minnie Smith,’ Minnie Lawlers,’ Minnie McCoy’ and ‘Texas Tessie.’
Memphis Minnie passed away on August 6, 1973, in Memphis at the age of 76.

Happy “Heavenly” Birthday to legendary Cajun fiddler Tony Thibodeaux.
Born Antoine “Tony” Thibodeaux just outside of Rayne on June 2, 1938, he got his first big break in the music business when he joined Aldus Roger and ‘The Lafayette Pl***oys’ at the age of 17 in 1955.
The Lafayette Pl***oys first appeared on J.D. “Jay” Miller’s Crowley-based ‘Feature’ label (78 rpm), with “Love Sick Waltz” and “Mardi Gras Dance.”
In 1958, they appeared on their initial 45 rpm release on ‘Swallow Records,’ with the songs, “Las Valse A Alida” and “Cajun Special.”
The Lafayette Pl***oys also appeared on Floyd Soileau’s “Jin Records” label.
He stayed with the Lafayette Pl***oys for 13 years until 1968, when he took a short breather from the music business.
Thibodeaux however, returned soon enough and this time with his own band, ‘Tony Thibodeaux and The Cajun Fever.’
His ‘Cajun Fever’ band included the likes os his brother Leon Thibodeaux, along with Reggie Matte, David ‘Pokey’ Guidry, and Joe Simon.
Thibodeaux was a member of ‘Robert Bertrand and The Louisiana Ramblers.
In 1998, he played fiddle and co-produced, along with Rufus Thibodeaux a 15-track CD album on the ‘LaLouisiane Records’ label, entitled ‘ Rufus and Tony Thibodeaux: “Fiddlin’ with Friends.”
Along with being a well-known fiddler, Thibodeaux had been an insurance salesman with Evangeline, Security, and Melancon Life Insurance, as well as a police officer for some 10 years stretching from the late 1970’s into the 80’s at the Abbeville Police Department. He also served in the U.S. Army National Guard.
In 2003, the ‘Cajun Music Association Hall of Fame’ recipient was named “Fiddler of the Year” by the ‘Cajun French Music Association.”

Thibodeaux passed away on September 30, 2010, at his residence in Lake Charles at the age of 72.