The post WWII song, "I Got My Mojo Workin" by Muddy Waters is perhaps the best known reference for the mojo.
But, Memphis' mojo got working in the early 1900s when blues music became a mainstay of the city’s heritage. The "Father of the Blues," W.C. Handy wrote Memphis Blues, Beale Street Blues and St. Louis Blues between 1909 and 1914 in Memphis on Beale Street.
Handy added a jazzy, uptown sound to blues and we're sure that coffee became just as important a drink as bourbon for listeners. But still, country blues musicians like Robert Johnson played Beale Street and stirred up a lot of long nights of masterful mojo.
Blues flourished in Memphis and great hotels like the Peabody served up music, mint julips and coffee along with dance floors, great food, soft pillows and cozy rooms.
And in the 1950s a young man got this mojo workin' and shocked the world with a Hound Dog, gyrating hips and a thing called rock ‘n roll. Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee got their mojo workin' in Memphis.
Soul and Rhythm 'n Blues were original music forms that added to the Memphis’ mojo baseline. Aretha Franklin, Booker T & the MGs, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding. Stax. Hi. Ardent. All that music, all that magic is still flowing today through Memphis Mojo Java and the Blue Mojo Coffee Company.
