Jessie Mae Hemphill-Senatobia Miss US 51Blues Trail South Haven, MS

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Miss U. S. 51

Jessie Mae Hemphill Senatobia

One of the few female performers of country blues, Jessie Mae Hemphill (c. 1934 – 2006) was a multi-instrumentalist who performed in local fife and drum bands before gaining international recognition in the 1980s as a vocalist and guitarist. Her grandfather, Sid Hemphill, was a leading musician in the area, and his daughters, including Jessie Mae’s mother Virgie Lee, all played drums and stringed instruments. She is buried here at the Senatobia Memorial Cemetery.

Jessie Mae Hemphill

Jessie Mae Hemphill

Jessie Mae Hemphill, who struck a unique chord with blues fans due to her colorful personality and attire and her choice of instruments, represented deep and rich traditions in the Senatobia area. Her great-grandfather, Dock Hemphill, was a fiddler who was born a slave, and her grandfather, Sid Hemphill (c. 1876-1963), played fiddle, guitar, banjo, drums, fife, mandolin, organ, and quills. Folklorists Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress and Lewis Jones of Fisk University documented Hemphill’s broad repertoire at a recording session in Sledge in 1942. Lomax, who recorded music around the world and returned to record Hemphill in 1959, later recalled that encountering Hemphill's fife and drum music was the “main find of my whole career.”

Sid Hemphill’s daughters, Rosa Lee, Sidney, and Virgie Lee, were all musicians, and when Jessie Mae was a small girl her grandfather inspired her to take up a guitar, harmonica, and drums. During the 1950s she sang briefly with bands in Memphis, but most of her early musical experiences were local. Folklorist George Mitchell, who included chapters on her and her aunt Rosa Lee Hill in his book Blow My Blues Away, recorded her in the late '60s. Her first 45 rpm single, produced by Dr. David Evans, was released on the University of Memphis' High Water label in 1980. Hemphill subsequently toured the U.S. and Europe, recorded several albums, and won several W. C. Handy Awards for traditional blues. She played drums behind fife player Otha Turner on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and gained broader acclaim via her appearance in the 1992 documentary film Deep Blues. In 1993 Hemphill suffered a stroke that prevented her from playing guitar, but she continued to sing, and in 2004 she was featured singing and playing tambourine on the album Dare You to Do It Again, which featured many local musicians.

Other Senatobia area musicians who played in distinctive local folk traditions include many members of the extended family of Otha Turner, including his granddaughter and fife player Sharde Thomas; fife players Napolian Strickland and Ed Young; drummers Lonnie Young, Abe (“Cag” or "Kag") Young and R. L. Boyce; diddley bow players Glen Faulkner and Compton Jones; guitarists Sandy Palmer and Ranie Burnette (who was a major influence on R. L. Burnside); harmonica player Johnny Woods; banjoist Lucius Smith; and vocalist James Shorter, who recorded with Jessie Mae Hemphill. Artists who left the area and performed in more modern styles include guitarist Willie Johnson and bassists Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Aron Burton, all of whom moved to Chicago; Wordie Perkins, guitarist with the Memphis band the Fieldstones; and Kalamazoo, Michigan, soul/blues vocalist Lou Wilson

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Jessie Mae Hemphill is shown here in a 1967 photo by George Michell, who also recorded her. The recordings were issued in 2007 by the Oxford-based Fat Possum label.

In these 1959 photos by Alan Lomax, said Hemphill plays the quills, while Lucius Smith plays banjo on Hemphill's porch. Hemphill's daughter Rosa Lee Hill (with guitar) and Sidney Hemphill Carter are shown on the porch on Fred McDowell's Como Home.
Willie Johnson (1923-1995)is known for his distorted electric guitar work on Howlin Wolf's earliest records. He also made a recording for Sun label in Memphis. Senatobia, Lake Cormorant, and Arkabula have all been cited as his birthplace.
Jessie Mae Hemphill poses in her brand new "leopard queen" outfit in the early 1990s. According to photographer Steve Gardner, Hemphill carried both a .38 Special and a 9mm automatic pistol in her purse and wanted people to know that she "didn't play and was ready for business.

Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (1926-2010) played bass with Muddy Water's band in Chicago and later toured with her legendary Blues Band.
a native of Lefore County, he lived his final years in Senatobia.
Vocalist Low Wilson, who recorded several soul and blues singles and CD's was born in Looxamhoma in 1933. He began his career singing doo-wop in Battle Creek, Michigan, and later moved to Kalamazoo. wilson' uncle LP Buford owned a local store and picnic grounds where fife and drum bands often performed.

High Water Recording Company
“Shame on You "
Hemphill
Jessie Mae Hemphill 

Welcome to one of the many sites on the Mississippi Blues Trail 

Visit us online at www.MSBluesTrail.org

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15026875/jessie-mae-hemphill

Otha Turner -COMO Miss US 51 Tanger Outlet Blues Trail South Haven, MS

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Miss US 51

Otha Turner -COMO 

The African American fife and drum tradition in north Mississippi stretches back to the 1800s and is often noted for its similarities to African music. Its best-known exponent, Otha (or Othar) Turner (c. 1908-2003), presided over annual fife and drum picnics and goat roasts on his property in nearby Gravel Springs and performed at numerous festivals. His music was featured in several documentaries as well as in Martin Scorsese’s film Gangs of New York.

Otha  Turner MIss US 51

Black Fife and Drum Music

The fife and drum ensemble is most closely associated with military marches, but African American bands in North Mississippi have long used fifes and drums to provide entertainment at picnics and other social events. Many scholars believe that such groups formed in the wake of the Civil War, perhaps using discarded military instruments. Prior to the war slaves were largely forbidden from playing drums out of fear that they would use the instruments for secret communication, though African Americans did serve in military units as musicians, playing fifes, drums, and trumpets. North Mississippi fife and drum music are often described as sounding “African,” but it was not imported directly from Africa. Instead, it appears that African American musicians infused the Euro-American military tradition with distinctly African polyrhythms, riff structures, and call-and-response patterns. Fife and drum bands have performed spirituals, minstrel songs, instrumental pieces such as “Shimmy She Wobble,” and versions of blues hits including the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sitting On Top of the World” and Little Walter’s “My Babe.” While the black fife and drum tradition is identified with northern Mississippi, researchers have also documented the music in other areas, including southwestern Mississippi, western Tennessee, and west central Georgia.

In 1942 multi-instrumentalist Sid Hemphill and his band made the first recordings of Mississippi fife and drum music for Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax. His granddaughter, blues singer-guitarist Jessie Mae Hemphill, later played drums in local fife and drum bands. Lomax also recorded fife and drum music by brothers Ed and Lonnie Young in 1959. In the 1960s and ’70s folklorists George Mitchell, David Evans, and Bill Ferris recorded groups featuring Napolian Strickland (c. 1919-2001) on fife and Otha Turner on the bass drum.

Turner, born in Rankin County around 1908—various sources suggest birth years ranging from 1903 to 1917—moved to northern Mississippi as a child together with his mother, Betty Turner. He learned to create his own fifes by using a heated metal rod to hollow out and bore a mouth hole and five finger holes into a piece of bamboo cane. Turner, who spent most of his life as a farmer, eventually became the patriarch of the regional fife and drum tradition. He recorded as leader of the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band for various American and European labels and appeared in several documentaries, including Gravel Springs Fife and Drum, Lomax’s Land Where the Blues Began, and Martin Scorsese’s Feel Like Going Home. Following his death in 2003 his granddaughter and protégé Sharde Thomas inherited leadership of his fife and drum band.

Captions
Top Photo: Otho Turner leads his fife and drum band including RL Boyce and Abe Young, at the annual picnic at his home in Gravel Springs, northeast of Como in August 1998

Otha Turner plays guitar as his friend Mississippi Fre McDowell looks on. The photograph was taken in 1969 by folklorists David Evans during a field recording session.

The band on this 1995 eP on the Sugar Ditch label included, from left, Bernice Turner Pratcher RL Boyce, Otha Turner and Aubrey Turner, Otha Turner and Pratcher, his daughter and the group's manager, tragically died on the same day, Feb 27, 2003. Otha's name was spelled Othar, other in Otbo on various recording and documents.

Como native Napolian Strickland was a close musical associate of Otha Turner who played fife, drum, diddley bow harmonica and guitar. Turner made his first recording performing on drums behind Strickland's fife and vocal.

fife player Ed Young and his brother Lonnie (right)were among the many local musicians, including Fred McDowell, who was first recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax. Lomax subsequently booked the Youngs as folk festivals nationwide.

Drummer Abe ("Kag" or "Cag")
Young the son of Lonnie Young

Otha Turner looks on with pride as his granddaughter, Sharde Thomas (b Jan 8, 1990) performs at the Turner's annual picnic in Aug 1997. Sharde was accompanied on drums by her cousin Rodney Andre and Aubrey.

Welcome to one of the many sites on the Mississippi Blues Trail 

Visit us online at www.MSBluesTrail.org 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19636923/otha-turner