Gus Cannon

Gus Cannon ( born September 12, 1883 in Red Banks, Mississippi, † October 15, 1979 in Memphis, Tennessee ) was an American blues musician, who is best known for his band Cannon's Jug Stompers end of the 1920s.

Childhood and youth

Cannon was born in 1883 as the youngest of ten children of the Sharecropper John and Ellen Cannon. At twelve, he worked in Clarksdale, Mississippi to the cotton fields. Here he came into contact with the Blues. He brought the music itself in, where he played on a banjo, which he had built himself from a ladle and a guitar neck.

Career

In 1900, Cannon played in various bands in the area of Clarksdale. He founded his first Jugband when he worked for the railroad in Greenville. He learned the harmonica player Noah Lewis and the young guitarist Ashley Thompson, with whom he often played together. 1910 Cannon married. From 1914 he performed regularly at Medicine shows. In the 1920s, he lived in the area from Memphis ( Tennessee) and also appeared in the infamous Beale Street. During this time, the Memphis Jug Band came to some fame. 1927 started his professional career as a musician. His first records he played in 1927 as " Banjo Joe" for Paramount Records, where he was accompanied by Blind Blake on guitar. 1928 Gus Cannon made ​​by Lewis and Thompson under the name of Cannon's Jug Stompers first shots. Later, among other things, Hosea and Elijah Wood Avery played in the group. Other recordings, even solo, followed until 1930. Thereafter, the success was soon after. Cannon continued to live in Memphis, where he met the young Johnny Cash beginning of the 1950s, who was at that time still housewares representative.

Only in the late 1950s, Gus Cannon was again "discovered". With Will Shade and Milton Ruby he took in 1963 an album with Stax Records on. After his death in 1979, The Lovin ' Spoonful gave a benefit concert to raise money for Gus Cannon's grave stone. 2010 was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame Gus Cannon, Cannon's Jug together with the Stompers.