ABSTRACT
The blues remained the music of the large number of poor blacks, especially those packed into the ghetto areas of the northern cities. Soon the blues clubs were full of new sounds- traditional country blues, though played much louder with electric guitars. The blues harmonica, or harp as it was often called, had been developed by the great John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson. Little Walter carried on Sonny Boy's tradition of blues harp playing and made this instrument one of the central ones in the Chicago blues band sound of the early 1950s. Chicago was not the only city to update the country blues to give a tougher, electrically amplified sound. The northern city of Detroit became the home of another famous post-war blues singer to work in a similar style. The growth of Memphis as a key blues centre after the Second World War was largely due to the influence of radio, together with the recording industry.
