Memphis Jug Band
The Memphis Jug Band was an American
Beginning in 1926,
Members
Among the recorded members of the Memphis Jug Band at various times were
Band name
The group recorded under several names for various record labels: the Picaninny Jug Band,[6] the Memphis Sanctified Singers, the Carolina Peanut Boys, the Dallas Jug Band, the Memphis Sheiks, and the Jolly Jug Band. Other releases were credited to individual members of the band — Hattie Hart, Minnie Wallace, Will Weldon, Charlie Nickerson, Vol Stevens, Charlie Burse, "Poor Jab" Jones, and Will Shade—but were performed with accompaniment by other members of the band.[8]
Sound
The remarkable sound of the Memphis Jug Band was partly due to its unusual instruments. The first recorded jug bands, based in
The band initially played mostly country blues, but its repertoire expanded as new members contributed their own styles. Songs led by Charlie "Bozo" Nickerson, such as "Everybody's Talking About Sadie Green" and "Cave Man Blues", were boisterous and funny; songs led by Charlie Burse, such as "Little Green Slippers" and "Insane Crazy Blues", were more musically complex and jazz-oriented; songs led by Charlie Pierce sounded like Appalachian fiddle tunes, backed by impressive jug playing and shouted challenges from his bandmates.[6] Will Shade continued playing straightforward country blues songs for the rest of his life, but he also introduced some jazz elements, as in his 1962 field recording of "Jump and Jive", which incorporates lyrics from Cab Calloway's "Jumpin' Jive".
The blues scholar Paul Oliver noted that the "raspy, buzzing sound" of some of the jug band instruments was close to the musical aesthetic of Africa, and that the jug and kazoo represented the voices of animals or ancestral spirits.[4] However, many of the Memphis Jug Band's influences are more readily apparent in popular musical styles of their time.
Performances
The Memphis Jug Band played wherever they could find engagements and
Commercial recordings
Between 1927 and 1934, the Memphis Jug Band made more than eighty commercial recordings, first for
Two of their 1920s recordings were included on the influential Anthology of American Folk Music, released in 1952 (a third is on the unreleased fourth volume). Their 1928 recording of "Stealin', Stealin'" was included on the compilation album The Country Blues issued by Folkways Records in 1959. The song became one of the group's best known, especially after the Grateful Dead recorded it as its first single, in 1966.
The other jug band song on The Country Blues was Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In", which was a hit for the Rooftop Singers in 1962. Capitalizing on the success of that recording, the Memphis label Stax Records invited Cannon, then 79 years old, to record a full-length album the following year. Will Shade, the leader of the Memphis Jug Band, backed Cannon on jug, and former member Milton Roby played washboard.
Twenty-eight of the group's commercial recordings from 1927 to 1934 were reissued by
Field recordings
During the folk revival of the 1950s, Shade made several field recordings. His ongoing activity as a performer and his accessible location in Memphis made him a popular starting point for scholars looking for other musicians in the area. Shade would often gather musicians at his apartment at Fourth and Beale for informal recording sessions featuring former musical rivals (including his former romantic rival Furry Lewis),[15] playing together in different combinations. Shade continued using the name Memphis Jug Band, even for recordings consisting only of him and one or two other members. His wife, Jennie Mae Clayton, who sang on some of the earliest Memphis Jug Band recordings, also sang on some of these field recordings.
The following are commercially available field recordings from this period:
- American Skiffle Bands, recorded 1957, reissued 2012, three songs and one interview
- Alan Lomax Blues Songbook, recorded 1959, reissued 2003, one song
- Conversation with the Blues, recorded 1960, reissued 1997, one interview
- Tennessee Recordings (from the George Mitchell collection), recorded 1962, reissued 2006, seven songs
- Blueskvarter: 1964, vol. 3, recorded 1964, reissued 2004, two songs
Legacy
The Memphis Jug Band was key in developing the jug band format, which evolved into the blues combo that is the basis of much popular music today. Their legacy, like that of other acoustic blues musicians of their era, has been overshadowed by the electric blues of the 1950s. Modern jug bands still play many Memphis Jug Band songs, but generally the only songs recognizable to a wider audience are those that were covered by rock groups in the 1960s.
The Memphis Jug Band was awarded a Brass Note on the Beale Street "Walk of Fame" in 2009. It was among the first group of inductees into the Jug Band Hall of Fame, an informal website run by jug band musicians, in 2010.
Selected discography
Year | Title | Genre | Label |
---|---|---|---|
1980 | Memphis Jug Band | Popular, blues[16] | Yazoo |
2001 | The Best of the Memphis Jug Band | Ballad, Blues | Yazoo |
2005 | Memphis Jug Band with Cannon's Jug Stompers | Ballad, Blues | JSP |
2005 | Memphis Shakedown: More Jug Band Classics | Ballad, Blues | JSP Records |
2006 | Tennessee Recordings | Ballad, Blues | Big Legal Mess Records |
2017 | American Epic: The Best of the Memphis Jug Band | Popular, blues | Lo-Max |
Footnotes
- ISBN 0-306-80438-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-816239-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
- ^ ISBN 0-631-18301-9.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
- ^ ISBN 0-85112-673-1.
- ISBN 0-306-80460-3.
- ISBN 0-306-80014-4.
- ^ "Will Shade and Charlie Burse". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
- ISBN 0-306-80438-7.
- U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
- ^ "Memphis Jug Band | Songs". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
- ^ Anon. 1983, p. 49; Anon. 1981, p. 290.
- ^ Christgau, Robert (December 24, 2002). "Consumer Guide: Re-make/Re-model". The Village Voice. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
- ^ Musselwhite, Charlie (2008). Personal communication.
- ^ Anon. 1981, p. 290.
References
- Anon. (1981). Music: Books on Music and Sound Recordings. Library of Congress.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Anon. (1983). "Record Reviews". JEMF Quarterly. 19. John Edwards Memorial Foundation.
- Olsson, Bengt (1980). Liner notes from Memphis Jug Band: Double Album, Yazoo Records.
External links
- Memphis Jug Band discography at Discogs