Memphis Jug Band Blues
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Memphis Jug Band Blues is the Memphis-centered strand of jug-band blues, looser and more streetwise than the Louisville jazz-jug tradition. It uses guitar, harmonica, kazoo, jug bass, mandolin, fiddle, washboard, and comic vocal exchanges to create a rolling, ragged dance sound with blues verses, ragtime bounce, and Beale Street wit.
History
Led most famously by Will Shade, the Memphis Jug Band recorded extensively from 1927 and became the definitive Beale Street jug ensemble, absorbing local guitarists, singers, harmonica players, and vaudeville material. Cannon's Jug Stompers, Noah Lewis, Memphis Minnie's circle, and related Memphis musicians gave the style a flexible repertory of blues, pop tunes, breakdowns, and double-entendre songs. Folk revivalists rediscovered the catalog in the 1950s and 1960s, helping launch jug-band revival, skiffle affinities, and acoustic roots-blues reenactment.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Samuel Charters, The Country Blues
- David Evans, Big Road Blues
- Elijah Wald, Escaping the Delta
- AllMusic