Memphis Blues
One of the unique musical characteristics of the Memphis blues style is its inclusion of unusual instruments such as a fiddle or a washboard. Notice on Frank Stokes's musical example, " I'm Going Away Blues," that he includes the blues instrumentalist and singer Will Batts 
SIDE NOTEFiddler Will Batts was the primary instrumentalist in Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band, a popular string band whose music owed a heavy debt to the blues as well as minstrel songs, vaudeville numbers, reels, and rags. Born January 24, 1904, in Michigan, Mississippi, Batts worked as a farmhand before pursuing a full-time career in music; he soon joined Kelly's band, a fixture of the Beale Street area, and in 1933 they made their first recordings, followed in 1939 by a second and final session. Batts also backed a variety of other Memphis performers, including minstrel singer Frank Stokes; a 1952 session with harpist Big Walter Horton which rwas his last known recording date-he died on April 16, 1954" (Balfour, 1991). (1904-1956) playing the fiddle. Also, on Memphis Minnie's track, " My Baby Don't Want Me No More ," she includes the piano, which also appears to be a feature in Memphis blues.
Musicologist, David Evans (Evans 2015, 132), comments on the blues tradition and its move to include more instruments:
Jack Kelly and his South Memphis Jug Band
Blues musicians also formed larger groups made up of various combinations of strings, wind, and percussion instruments, known as juke bands, skiffle bands, juke bands, washboard band, string bands, and hokum bands. Such groups sometimes included homemade instruments and household objects, such as the kazoo, jug, washboard, spoons, and washtub (or bucket) bass. These instruments were cheap, readily available, and often had an added humorous or novelty value. Most presented reinterpretations of African prototype instruments."
David Evans
Banjo player Gus Cannon and guitarist Will Shade, based in Memphis, formed their jug bands-each with only one jug, but with "mouth harp" (harmonica) and string bass players. The jazz-inflected string bands of Indianapolis, which had beat and rhythm provided by jug players, influenced these jug bands. The jug bands were highly successful, playing and recording many blues, on which the leaders often took the vocals and played tunes for dancing and traveling show entertainment (Oliver 2012, n.p.).
Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, c. 1928 (Cannon is on the left)
Old six-string zither banjo
Unfortunately, there are very few recordings of blues singers and musicians playing the banjo. Among the most significant were Papa Charlie Jackson and Gus "Banjo Joe" Cannon mentioned above. Jackson was probably the first self-accompanied solo male singer to record a blues with his " Papa's Lawdy Lawdy Blues" and "Airy Man Blues" for the Paramount label in 1924. However, Jackson continued to play banjo on the majority of his recordings during the following decade. The 1923 guitar solos made for Okeh in New York by Sylvester Weaver, including " Guitar Blues" and "Weaver's Blues," and " Mr. Johnson's Blues ," made by guitar-playing blues singer Lonnie Johnson in St. Louis for the same company in 1925, were significant indications of a new trend (Oliver 2012, n.p.).