Personalities | Memphis Jug Band | Twenties | Jazz & Blues
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1927–34)
They did not invent the style, but guitarist/harpist Will Shade (a.k.a. Son Brimmer) and his rollicking aggregation were among the most popular and influential of the jug and string bands that proliferated around Memphis and Louisville, as well as in the Mississippi Delta, during the 1920s and 1930s. With various personnel coming and going, the Jug Band included instruments such as violin, jug, kazoo, piano, mandolin, banjo, guitar, harmonica and washtub bass, and recorded nearly 60 sides for Victor.
Their members over the years included such luminaries as Furry Lewis, harpist Big Walter Horton and guitarist Casey Bill Weldon, as well as occasional female guest vocalists. Their repertoire included some blues, but their speciality was tightly arranged pop and novelty numbers, some of which (e.g. ‘Stealin’, Stealin’’) have become standards, and all of which they performed with a theatrical, vaudevillian flair. Although the Jug Band disbanded in the 1930s, Shade himself soldiered on with various reincarnated versions until his death in 1966.
Styles & Forms | Twenties | Jazz & Blues
Personalities | James ‘Bubber’ Miley | Twenties | Jazz & Blues
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
CURATED
Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.