Memphis Jug Band - Sound

Sound

Part of the Memphis Jug Band's remarkable sound was due to the unusual instruments. The first recorded jug bands, based in Louisville, Kentucky, were jazz-oriented groups with a jug taking the place of a tuba or trombone. The Memphis Jug Band borrowed from this model but added kazoo as a prominent lead instrument, similar in sound to a trumpet in a jazz band. Another variation from the Louisville sound was a focus on country blues songs like those favored by Jim Jackson and other Memphis-area solo artists. (The Memphis Jug Band recorded Jackson's hit song "Kansas City Blues" twice during its commercial recording period and chose it for its 1958 "Blues Street" television performance.) This is the basic jug band sound that was adopted by other Memphis-area groups like Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band and Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band.

After this initial focus on country blues, the band's repertoire expanded as new members contributed their own styles. Songs led by Charlie "Bozo" Nickerson, like "Everybody's Talking About Sadie Green" and "Cave Man Blues," were boisterous and funny; songs led by Charlie Burse, like "Little Green Slippers" and "Insane Crazy Blues," were more musically complex and jazz-oriented; while songs led by Charlie Pierce sounded like Appalachian fiddle tunes, albeit backed by impressive jug playing and various shouted challenges from his bandmates. While Will Shade continued playing straightforward country blues songs for the rest of his life, he also introduced some jazz elements, including blending lyrics from Cab Calloway's "Jumpin' Jive" into his 1962 field recording of "Jump and Jive."

Blues scholar Paul Oliver noted that the "raspy, buzzing sound" of some of the jug band instruments was close to the musical aesthetic of Africa, and he said the jug and kazoo represented the voices of animals or ancestral spirits. But many of the Memphis Jug Band's influences are more readily apparent in the various popular musical styles of their time.