Gus Cannon | |
|---|---|
 Cannon (left) with Cannon's Jug Stompers,c. 1928 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Banjo Joe |
| Born | Gustavus Cannon (1883-09-12)September 12, 1883 Red Banks, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | October 15, 1979(1979-10-15) (aged 96) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk blues |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1898–1940; 1956–1979 |
| Labels | |
| Formerly of | Cannon's Jug Stompers |
Gustavus "Gus" Cannon (September 12, 1883[1] – October 15, 1979) was an Americanblues musician who helped to popularizejug bands (such as his own Cannon's Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. There is uncertainty about his birth year; his tombstone gives the date as 1874.[2]
Born on a plantation inRed Banks, Mississippi, Cannon moved a hundred miles toClarksdale, then the home ofW. C. Handy, at the age of 12. His musical skills came without training; he taught himself to play abanjo that he made from a frying pan and araccoon skin. He ran away from home at the age of fifteen and began his career entertaining atsawmills and atlevee and railroad camps in theMississippi Delta around the turn of the twentieth century.
While in Clarksdale, Cannon was influenced by two local musicians, Jim Turner and Alec Lee. Turner'sfiddle playing in W. C. Handy's band so impressed Cannon that he decided to learn to play the fiddle himself. Lee, a guitarist, taught Cannon his first folk blues, "Po' Boy, Long Ways from Home," and showed him how to use a knife blade as aslide, a technique that Cannon adapted to his banjo playing.[3]
Cannon left Clarksdale around 1907 and soon settled nearMemphis, Tennessee, where he played in a jug band led by Jim Guffin.[3] He began playing in Memphis withJim Jackson. He met the harmonica playerNoah Lewis, who introduced him to a young guitar player, Ashley Thompson. Lewis and Thompson later were members of Cannon's Jug Stompers. The three of them formed a band to play at parties and dances. In 1914 Cannon began touring inmedicine shows.[3] He supported his family through various jobs, including sharecropping, ditch digging, and yard work, but supplemented his income with music.
Cannon began recording, as Banjo Joe, forParamount Records in 1927. At that session he was backed byBlind Blake.[3] After the success of theMemphis Jug Band's first records, he quickly assembled a jug band, Cannon's Jug Stompers, featuring Lewis and Thompson (later replaced by Elijah Avery).[4] The group was first recorded at the Memphis Auditorium forVictor Records in January 1928.[5] Hosea Woods joined the Jug Stompers in the late 1920s, playing guitar, banjo andkazoo and providing some vocals. Cannon's Jug Stompers' recording of "Big Railroad Blues" is available on thecompilation albumThe Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead.
Although their last recordings were made in 1930, Cannon's Jug Stompers were one ofBeale Street's most popular jug bands through the 1930s. A few songs Cannon recorded with the Jug Stompers are "Minglewood Blues," "Pig Ankle Strut," "Wolf River Blues," "Viola Lee Blues," "White House Station," and "Walk Right In" (a pop hit forThe Rooftop Singers[4] in the 1960s and for Dr. Hook in the 1970s). By the end of the 1930s, Cannon had effectively retired, although he occasionally performed as a solo musician.
Cannon made a few recordings forFolkways Records in 1956. During the blues revival of the 1960s, he made some appearances at colleges andcoffee houses withFurry Lewis andBukka White,[4] but he had to pawn his banjo to pay his heating bill the winter before The Rooftop Singers had a hit with "Walk Right In."[6]
In the wake of becoming a hit composer, he recorded an album forStax Records in 1963, with fellow Memphis musiciansWill Shade (the former leader of the Memphis Jug Band) on jug and Milton Roby on washboard. Cannon performed traditional songs, including "Kill It," "Salty Dog," "Going Around," "The Mountain," "Ol' Hen," "Gonna Raise a Ruckus Tonight," "Ain't Gonna Rain No More," "Boll-Weevil," "Come On down to My House," "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," "Get Up in the Morning Soon," and "Crawdad Hole," along with his own "Walk Right In," with stories and introductions between songs.[7]
Cannon appeared in the filmHallelujah! (1929), produced byKing Vidor, in the late-night wedding scene.
Gus Cannon died inMemphis, Tennessee, on October 15, 1979, and is buried at Greenview Memorial Gardens,Hernando, Mississippi.[8]
