Anthology of American Folk Music
Volume 3: Songs, Track 66
BOB LEE JUNIOR BLUES
The Memphis Jug Band 
Recorded Atlanta, GA: October 19, 1927
Will Shade- guitar, Ben Ramey- kazoo, Will Weldon- guitar, Vol Stevens- banjo-mandolin, Jennie Clayton- vocal
Originally released on Victor 21412
The Memphis Jug Band was the earliest jug band in Memphis (Oliver, Story of the Blues, pg. 54). The group's leader was Will Shade (a.k.a. Son Brimmer; 1898-1966), who was influenced by the playing of Clifford Hayes' Louisville Jug Band. Like many of his Memphis contemporaries, Shade had spent time with the medicine shows. In 1909, alcohol sales were made illegal throughout Tennessee, with the exception of Memphis (Bengt Olsson, notes to Yazoo 1067). Beale Street was wide open and musicians gravitated towards it. By the 1920s, there were a number of jug bands working Beale Street. Nearby Handy's Park was the site of an around-the-clock party, and The Memphis Jug Band found a home there, entertaining for tips.
The Memphis Jug Band revolved around Shade, and although there were many members over the years, the core of the group consisted of Shade, Jab Jones (ca. 1880s-ca. 1940s), and Charlie Burse (1901-1966). The 1927 line-up represented here included a number of others, including Will Weldon, who did play with the group frequently. Ben Ramey was one of the original members of the group along with Tee Wee Blackman and Lionhouse, who was a middle aged man who played an empty whiskey bottle (Olsson, notes to Yazoo 1067). Vol Stevens was a multi-instrumentalist from nearby Fayette County, who also ocassionally played with the group. Only Shade and Burse stayed with the group; other members came and went. By 1934, when they made their last recording, the jug band craze had run its course, but they left behind a legacy of sixty recordings.
In 1956, music scholar Samuel Charters interviewed Shade and Burse and recorded a group consisting of those two, joined by Gus Cannon (see Track 59). At the time when they got together for Charters, Shade had left music to work at a tire plant; Burse as a house painter; and Cannon as a handy man. The resulting album was released on Folkways (#2610). Shade and Burse also recorded in 1963 for George Mitchell and Roger Brown with the results published as Beale Street Mess Around (Rounder 2006). Both Shade and Burse died in 1966.
For additional recordings of the group see: The Memphis Jug Band (YZ 1067c); and the collections Jug, Jook and Washboard Bands (BC 2a); Good Time Blues (COL 46780c); Country Blues (FW RF1c); Rural Blues (FW FWRF 202c); Skiffle Bands (FW 2610c) -- which includes an interview with Shade and Burse; Great Jug Bands, 1926-1934 (HIS 66a); The Party Blues (Melodeon 7234a); Jugs, Washboards and Kazoos (RCA 540a); Wild About My Lovin' (RCA 2461c); Beale Street Mess Around (RND 2006a); Blues Masters, Vol. 12 (RH 71129c); Memphis Masters, 1927-1934 (YZ 2008c); and Before the Blues, Vol. 2 (YZ 2016c).
