Blues guitar pioneer and all around badass Lizzie Douglas–better known as Memphis Minnie–was born in Algiers, LA 119 years ago today. She had a few hits back in her time, including “Bumble Bee,” “Me and My Chauffeur Blues” and “Nothing in Rambling,” but these days she’s probably best known for “When the Levee Breaks.”

The track, which was rearranged and popularized by Led Zeppelin in 1971, was originally recorded by Douglas and her then-husband Kansas Joe McCoy in 1928 as a response to the floods that devastated the Mississippi River Delta a year earlier. The vocals were handled by McCoy, but the lyrics were co-written by Memphis Minnie and you can hear her playing lead behind them.