Accompanied only by an acoustic guitar and by the thumping sound of his own wooden leg, Peg Leg Sam blends down-home humor and harmonica virtuosity on Kickin’ It. A one-time traveling medicine show entertainer from the ’30s, Sam recorded these Piedmont and Delta blues classics in 1970 and 1972 for the Trix label. Among the many highlights here are unaccompanied harmonica showcases like “Lost John,” “Reuben” and the show-stopping “Peg’s Fox Chase.” Sam also delivers one rhyming story, “Ode to Bad Bill,” in folksy fashion. A favorite of folklorist Alan Lomax, Peg Leg Sam (born Arthur Jackson in Jonesville, S.C.) was an irrepressible showman from the old school. We may never see the likes of him again.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro