Memphis Jug Band
Encyclopedia
The Memphis Jug Band was an American
musical group
in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonica
s, violin
s, mandolin
s, banjo
s, and guitar
s, backed by washboard
s, kazoo
, and jugs
blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles. The band recorded almost a hundred titles.
Between 1927 and 1934 various African-American
musicians in the Memphis, Tennessee
area grouped around singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica
player Will Shade
(also known as Son Brimmer or Sun Brimmer). The personnel of this jug band
varied from day to day, with Shade booking gigs and arranging recording sessions. The band functioned as a training ground for musicians who would go on to success with careers of their own.
(vocals, guitar, harmonica), Charlie Burse
(guitar, mandolin, and vocals), Charlie Nickerson (piano and vocals), Charlie Pierce (violin), Charlie Polk (jug), Tewee Blackman (vocals, guitar), “Hambone” Lewis (jug), Jab Jones (jug, piano, vocals ), Johnny Hodges/Hardge (piano), Ben Ramey (vocals and kazoo), Casey Bill Weldon
(guitar and vocals), Memphis Minnie
(guitar and vocals), Vol Stevens (vocals, violin, and mandolin), Milton Robie (violin), Otto Gilmore/Gilmer (drums and woodblocks), and Robert Burse (drums). Vocals were also provided by Hattie Hart
, Memphis Minnie
, Jennie Mae Clayton (Shade’s wife), and Minnie Wallace, with Charlie Burse
often contributing harmony parts to Shade’s lead vocals. In the case of Memphis Minnie, the Memphis Blues Band accompanied her on two sides for Victor Records, recorded in 1930 when the band's career was winding down. Some members also contributed to gospel
recordings, either uncredited or as part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers. Their large membership pool allowed the Memphis Jug Band the flexibility to play a mixture of ballad
s, dance
tunes, knock-about novelty numbers, and blues
.
, Charlie Nickerson, Vol Stevens, Charlie Burse
, “Poor Jab” Jones, and Will Shade, but performed with accompaniment by other Memphis Jug Band members.
and either a jug
, a kazoo
or a harmonica
as a lead instrument or sometimes a mandolin
or violin
. The sound of the instruments ofen conveyed a "raspy, buzzing sound" that a British music scholar who did not know the band personally stated was close to the musical aesthetic of Africa
, and in which, he said, the jug and kazoo represented the voices of animals or ancestral spirits. Shade never told scholars why he liked this sound, and since many of the performers were also part Native American, it is a good question as to which ancestors—if any—the kazoo was supposed to represent.
in local parks. They were popular among white as well as black audiences. In total, they made more than eighty recordings, first for Victor Records
, then—as the Picaninny Jug Band—for the Champion-Gennett label, and finally for OKeh Records
. The Victor recordings were made in Memphis and Atlanta, Georgia
between 1927 and 1930, the Champion-Gennetts in Richmond, Indiana
in August 1932, while the final sessions on Okeh were held in Chicago
in November 1934. By that time, their style of music was no longer in demand, and Shade was no longer able to keep the musicians assembled as a group, although many of the individuals carried on working around Memphis until the 1940s. Their recording "Stealin', Stealin'" was included on the compilation album
The Country Blues
issued on Folkways Records
in 1959.
, former leader of Cannon’s Jug Stompers, another popular jug band
. They recorded the album Walk Right In, on Stax Records
, a result of The Rooftop Singers
having made Cannon's "Walk Right In
" into a number one single. Will Shade on jug and former Memphis Jug Band member Milton Roby on washboard perform a series of thirteen traditional songs, plus Cannon's great hit "Walk Right In," including "Narration," "Kill It," "Salty Dog," "Going Around," "The Mountain," "Ol' Hen", "Gonna Raise A Ruckus Tonight," "Ain't Gonna Rain No More," "Boll-Weevil," "Come On Down To My House," "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," "Get Up In The Morning Soon," and "Crawdad Hole." The album is almost an audio documentary tour through different corners of Cannon's life and career that, ideally, might've run to several volumes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musical group
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
in the late 1920s and early to mid 1930s. The band featured harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
s, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
s, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
s, and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, backed by washboard
Washboard
A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. With mechanized cleaning of clothing becoming more common by the end of the 20th century, the washboard has become better known for its originally subsidiary use as a musical instrument....
s, kazoo
Kazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
, and jugs
Jug (musical instrument)
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...
blown to supply the bass; they played in a variety of musical styles. The band recorded almost a hundred titles.
Between 1927 and 1934 various African-American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
musicians in the Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
area grouped around singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player Will Shade
Will Shade
Will Shade was an African American Memphis blues musician, best known for his membership in the Memphis Jug Band. Shade was commonly called Son Brimmer, a nickname from his grandmother Annie Brimmer, because "son" is short for "grandson"...
(also known as Son Brimmer or Sun Brimmer). The personnel of this jug band
Jug band
A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
varied from day to day, with Shade booking gigs and arranging recording sessions. The band functioned as a training ground for musicians who would go on to success with careers of their own.
Members
Among the recorded members of the Memphis Jug Band were (at various times) Will ShadeWill Shade
Will Shade was an African American Memphis blues musician, best known for his membership in the Memphis Jug Band. Shade was commonly called Son Brimmer, a nickname from his grandmother Annie Brimmer, because "son" is short for "grandson"...
(vocals, guitar, harmonica), Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse was an African-American blues musician, best known for his skill with the ukulele. He was nicknamed "Uke Kid Burse" because of his talent, which extended to other musical instruments....
(guitar, mandolin, and vocals), Charlie Nickerson (piano and vocals), Charlie Pierce (violin), Charlie Polk (jug), Tewee Blackman (vocals, guitar), “Hambone” Lewis (jug), Jab Jones (jug, piano, vocals ), Johnny Hodges/Hardge (piano), Ben Ramey (vocals and kazoo), Casey Bill Weldon
Casey Bill Weldon
Casey Bill Weldon was an American country blues musician, born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas who later lived and worked in Chicago was known as one of the great early pioneers of the slide guitar. He played upbeat, hokum and country blues tunes, both as a solo artist and as a member of the Memphis Jug...
(guitar and vocals), Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
(guitar and vocals), Vol Stevens (vocals, violin, and mandolin), Milton Robie (violin), Otto Gilmore/Gilmer (drums and woodblocks), and Robert Burse (drums). Vocals were also provided by Hattie Hart
Hattie Hart
Hattie Hart was an American Memphis blues singer and songwriter. She was active as a recording artist in the late 1920s to the mid 1930s, and her best known tracks were "I Let My Daddy Do That" and "Coldest Stuff in Town". Hart worked both as a solo artist, and previously as a singer with the...
, Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
, Jennie Mae Clayton (Shade’s wife), and Minnie Wallace, with Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse was an African-American blues musician, best known for his skill with the ukulele. He was nicknamed "Uke Kid Burse" because of his talent, which extended to other musical instruments....
often contributing harmony parts to Shade’s lead vocals. In the case of Memphis Minnie, the Memphis Blues Band accompanied her on two sides for Victor Records, recorded in 1930 when the band's career was winding down. Some members also contributed to gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
recordings, either uncredited or as part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers. Their large membership pool allowed the Memphis Jug Band the flexibility to play a mixture of ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
tunes, knock-about novelty numbers, and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
.
Band name
The group recorded under several names on various recording labels, but today are most often referred to as the Memphis Jug Band. Alternate names found on record labels include the Picaninny Jug Band, Memphis Sanctified Singers, the Carolina Peanut Boys, the Dallas Jug Band, the Memphis Sheiks, the Jolly Jug Band and recordings credited to the individual performers Hattie Hart, Minnie Wallace, Casey Bill WeldonCasey Bill Weldon
Casey Bill Weldon was an American country blues musician, born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas who later lived and worked in Chicago was known as one of the great early pioneers of the slide guitar. He played upbeat, hokum and country blues tunes, both as a solo artist and as a member of the Memphis Jug...
, Charlie Nickerson, Vol Stevens, Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse
Charlie Burse was an African-American blues musician, best known for his skill with the ukulele. He was nicknamed "Uke Kid Burse" because of his talent, which extended to other musical instruments....
, “Poor Jab” Jones, and Will Shade, but performed with accompaniment by other Memphis Jug Band members.
Sound
The Memphis Jug Band has been described as having a remarkable sound due in part to the unusual instruments. Although most songs included a rhythm guitarRhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
and either a jug
Jug (musical instrument)
The jug as a musical instrument reached its height of popularity in the 1920s, when jug bands, such as Cannon's Jug Stompers were popular. The jug is just that: an empty jug played with the mouth...
, a kazoo
Kazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
or a harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
as a lead instrument or sometimes a mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
or violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. The sound of the instruments ofen conveyed a "raspy, buzzing sound" that a British music scholar who did not know the band personally stated was close to the musical aesthetic of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and in which, he said, the jug and kazoo represented the voices of animals or ancestral spirits. Shade never told scholars why he liked this sound, and since many of the performers were also part Native American, it is a good question as to which ancestors—if any—the kazoo was supposed to represent.
Performances and recordings
The Memphis Jug Band played wherever they could find engagements, and buskedBusking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
in local parks. They were popular among white as well as black audiences. In total, they made more than eighty recordings, first for Victor Records
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
, then—as the Picaninny Jug Band—for the Champion-Gennett label, and finally for OKeh Records
Okeh Records
Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...
. The Victor recordings were made in Memphis and Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
between 1927 and 1930, the Champion-Gennetts in Richmond, Indiana
Richmond, Indiana
Richmond is a city largely within Wayne Township, Wayne County, in east central Indiana, United States, which borders Ohio. The city also includes the Richmond Municipal Airport, which is in Boston Township and separated from the rest of the city...
in August 1932, while the final sessions on Okeh were held in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in November 1934. By that time, their style of music was no longer in demand, and Shade was no longer able to keep the musicians assembled as a group, although many of the individuals carried on working around Memphis until the 1940s. Their recording "Stealin', Stealin'" was included on the compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
The Country Blues
The Country Blues
-Side two:...
issued on Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
in 1959.
Last recording
In 1963 Shade recorded one last time with another Memphian, 79-year-old Gus CannonGus Cannon
Gus Cannon was an American blues musician, who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s. There is doubt about his birth year; his tombstone gives the date as 1874....
, former leader of Cannon’s Jug Stompers, another popular jug band
Jug band
A Jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. These home-made instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making of sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, stovepipe and comb & tissue paper...
. They recorded the album Walk Right In, on Stax Records
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
, a result of The Rooftop Singers
The Rooftop Singers
The Rooftop Singers were an American progressive folk-singing trio in the early 1960s, best known for the hit "Walk Right In". The group was composed of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor ....
having made Cannon's "Walk Right In
Walk Right In
Walk Right In is the title of a country blues song written by musician Gus Cannon and originally recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers in 1929, released on Victor Records, catalogue 38611. It was reissued on album in 1959 as a track on The Country Blues....
" into a number one single. Will Shade on jug and former Memphis Jug Band member Milton Roby on washboard perform a series of thirteen traditional songs, plus Cannon's great hit "Walk Right In," including "Narration," "Kill It," "Salty Dog," "Going Around," "The Mountain," "Ol' Hen", "Gonna Raise A Ruckus Tonight," "Ain't Gonna Rain No More," "Boll-Weevil," "Come On Down To My House," "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," "Get Up In The Morning Soon," and "Crawdad Hole." The album is almost an audio documentary tour through different corners of Cannon's life and career that, ideally, might've run to several volumes.
Selected discography
| Year | Title | Genre | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Best of the Memphis Jug Band | Ballad, Blues | Yazoo |
| 2007 | Memphis Jug Band: Double Album (Import) | Ballad, Blues | Airmail Japan |