The lush and easy ways of Memphis play a part in the drama, with visits to Graceland, a church famed for its gospel choir, and a blues bar framing the new relationships in an alluring but unsustainable cocoon of cultural legend.

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In 1914, Handy followed up Memphis Blues with his next hit, another 12-bar blues piece with a 16-bar habanera section.

BBC: WC Handy's Memphis Blues: The Song of 1912

Not only is Mr. Parson's staging as earthy and right as a 12-bar blues, but Shaun Motley's sad, shabby set and Vincent Olivieri's precisely calculated sound design supply the frame for a winningly fine display of ensemble acting by the entire nine-person cast, led with unimpeachable realism by Mr. Robinson.

WSJ: Jitney | August Wilson | The Verbal Music of Life | Theater Review by Terry Teachout

The Blues had the better of the opening exchanges and Newry keeper Nathan Morley Hillen produced a fine save to deny Garrett before Jamie Mulgrew shot another Blues chance over the bar.

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Bessie Smith's version of St Louis Blues was even filmed in a kind of predecessor of today's music videos - she acts out the part of a woman knocked to the ground by a two-timing boyfriend, and then moves to a bar to sing the blues.

BBC: WC Handy's Memphis Blues: The Song of 1912

He has played all of his matches for Leicester this season bar one - the defeat by Cardiff Blues in the EDF Energy Cup last weekend - in the number 10 shirt, but says he still sees himself as an "inside back" who is equally at home at inside centre.

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Although the Blues were much the better side in the first half, Cole's volley against the bar aside, they created few clear-cut chances.

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The brains behind Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and L.A. Law will bring his latest legal drama, Raising the Bar, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Kaczmarek, to the cable outlet this fall.

FORBES: TNT Is Raising The Bar