Memphis, Tennessee is known as the home of the Delta Blues and its buzzing Beale Street district is lined with bars, theatres and recording studios where legends like Minnie Memphis, B B King, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley sang, sweat and swayed.
Beale Street will burst to life in January for the International Blues Challenge when more than 250 blues acts from 40 US states and 24 countries participate.
Among the solo contestants will be Katoomba singer-songwriter Chris O (Okunbor), who qualified by winning the solo category of the Sydney Blues Society's Memphis Challenge held in Sydney this month.
Chris O, whose day job is co-ordinator of the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Healthy for Life Program, released an album called Peckmans Plateau that peaked at number five in the Australian blues and roots charts in 2014.
A delicate player of the slide guitar, dobro, banjo and ukelele, her voice meanders between roughness and tenderness and is weighted with feeling.
"The people who invented and play the blues are a very strong, very stoic people - it's in the nature of the music," she said.
"They had a hell of a hard time working in the fields and came back with songs that have proven so popular. I try to sing with a lot of respect for those people.
"While there are many technically good singers around, singing with feeling and creating a mood - that's everything in old time blues.
"If you don't have that, it just doesn't work."
The International Blues Challenge, run by Memphis-based The Blues Foundation, aims to preserve, celebrate and promote excellence in blues music all over the world.
According to its website, contestants in the challenge will experience a golden artistic and educational opportunity in world blues' heartland and the top acts will receive cash prizes, professional services and career-changing gigs.
Even those not judged as winners at the end of the competition have the chance to be discovered and, as a result, have the potential for doors to open for their future musical endeavours.
"Memphis and the nearby Mississippi delta is home to so many of my musical heroes like Memphis Minnie and B B King, so just the whole atmosphere full of musicians performing there will be a thrill for me to experience, particularly as I've never been to America before.
"I believe it's a great way to network too and I've already had a couple of American radio stations send me emails (as a result of qualifying).
"You never know what will come out of it."
