William Christopher Handy was born in Muscle Shoals, Alabama on November 16, 1873. His father was a Methodist minister and William sang in the church choir and played the organ.  His father did not allow him to play any instrument other than the church organ, however he secretly brought a cornet and began playing with the hometown brass band.  William walked 125 miles to Birmingham, Alabama to learn more about music. During this time he worked in a steel mill and also taught school.

Will played throughout the South in minstrel and tent shows making notes about the music he heard including the Delta Guitar. He would later adapt this music in his own performances.  He shifted to the music he had grown up with - spirituals, work songs, folk ballads and jazz and added "flatted thirds and sevenths" to what he called The Blues. 

In 1893 he organized a quartet to play the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. W.C. Handy became the director of Mahara's Minstrels in 1896. They toured the South playing popular dance, rags and light classical music until the early 1900s. Will finally settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 1908. 

In 1911 Will composed and published Memphis Blues, the first tune with the word "blues" in it. He followed that song with over sixty other tunes including Beale Street Blues, Ole Miss, Yellow Dog Blues and  his immortal St. Louis Blues in 1914.