Heritage Of The Blues: Shake It Baby

Performer: Jessie Mae Hemphill
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Jessie Mae Hemphill (vocals, guitar, diddley bow, snare drum, tambourine, foot tambourine, bells); David Evans (guitar); Compton Jones (diddley bow, tambourine); Lois Brown (bass); Calvin Jackson, R.L. Boyce, Joe Hicks (drums); Bettye Mitchell (tambourine). Compilation producers: Dr. David Evans, Bruce Bromberg. This is part of Highnote's Heritage Of The Blues series.

Boasting a musical family which included grandfather Sid Hemphill and aunt Rosa Lee Hill, the traditionalist Mississippi blueswoman Jesse Mae Hemphill specialized in a folk-derived, non-commercial blues indigenous to her region, including that of the fife-and-drum bands which actually predate the blues early in the 20th century. Hemphill's own music is characterized by the use of droning chords and self-accompanied rhythm provided by beating her foot on a tambourine. Her first solo album, 1981's SHE-WOLF, was actually first released in France but she eventually garnered several W.C. Handy awards for Best Traditional Artist all through the '80s. In 1993, a stroke necessitated her laying down her guitar but she continued to sing and beat on the tambourine till her death in 2006.

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