Will Shade & the Memphis Jug Band

Will Shade & the Memphis Jug Band

The Memphis Jug Band elementally meant Will Shade Jr. who was its leader. The jug band genre is a form of music which employs crude homemade instruments such as jugs, combs, washboards, et al. It became better known as skiffle in the United Kingdom to where it migrated to become popular during the UK Beat of the fifties preceding the British Invasion. As for the blues-oriented Memphis Jug Band, Shade was its steadiest member as vocalist, guitarist and harmonica player. Born in Memphis on 24 February 1898, Shade ran the MJB into the late thirties, later its reunions in the sixties.

The Jug Band is thought to have first recorded on February 24, 1927: 'Sun Brimmers Blues' and 'Stingy Woman Blues', 'Memphis Jug Blues' and 'Newport News Blues'. Its original members at the time were Will Weldon (vocals / guitar), Charlie Polk (jug) and Ben Ramey (kazoo). However personnel may vary through titles below, Will Shade performs in some capacity on each and every.

Lord's sessionography has the Jug Band down for a title in Memphis as late as 1935, 'Papa's Got Your Water On', before disbanding in 1937. Years later Shade and his Jug Band made numerous field recordings from 1957 to 1964. Shade also recorded apart from the MJB, such as in 1961 with Gus Cannon and Laura Dukes to result in the 1989 release of '1961 with Friends at a Private Party in Memphis, Tenn.' on Document Records DLP 561.

Will Shade died in Memphis on September 18, 1966 about a year after his compatriot Charlie Burse on 20 December 1965.