Memphis Stomp
(Mississippi Mud Steppers) Off Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi plays host once a month to Thacker Mountain Radio, a live public radio show, and it was here I first heard the Jake Leg Stompers. The Stompers hail from Bucksnort, Tennessee (yes, there really is such a place) and I found this song on one of their recordings. It originated as a tune by Alabama piano-banger Cow Cow Davenport—“Cow Cow Stomp”—and eventually made its way to Jackson, Mississippi, where Charley McCoy and Walter Vincson recorded it under the title “Jackson Stomp” as the Mississippi Mud Steppers. We brought it home to Memphis, and it gave us the title track for the record you now hold in your hands.
Hesitation Blues
(Charlie Poole, et. al.) – I am at a loss for whom to credit with the original presentation of this number, as it was performed and recorded widely on both sides of the color line early in the last century. I met Thomas Bailey at the Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis in 2008, then playing guitar with the Freight Hoppers. I was as green as Kermit the Frog wandering around the conference that year, but Thomas took pity on me and flipped me a copy of his “It’s Always August” CD and it is from his recording that our version of “Hesitation Blues” evolved.
CC Rider
(Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, et. al.) – Once again, this is one that came from the great ether. Everybody and their mother—literally, as the first recorded version was done by Ma Rainey in 1924—has recorded this song, including Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big Bill Brooonzy, Mississippi John Hurt, Lead Belly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, etc. I learned it from Caroline Sanford and Cecilia Chilton at a bluegrass jam in 2007. Caroline played guitar and hollered out, “Let’s do it jug band style” and let rip with that great bump!—chicy—bomp—bomp—bump! rhythm. I’m pretty sure she got her version from Old Crow Medicine Show, but shhh, don’t tell them.
Hottest Stuff In Town
(Hattie Hart duet with Allen Shaw) This one comes from right here in Memphis. Hattie Hart was one of the best known singers on and around Beale Street in the 1920’s and early ‘30’s, until the onset of the Great Depression drove her and many other Memphis musicians north to Chicago. She played and recorded widely with a number of the jug bands of the day, including the extremely influential Memphis Jug Band.
Tentin' Down In Tennessee
(Lee Morse) – Lee Morse obviously never spent much time down in Tennessee in the wintertime, in a tent or otherwise. She recorded this song back in 1926 with a full band and piano accompaniment, the same year the Paul Whiteman Orchestra recorded it for Victor. Her version of this song represents that jazzy, Tin Pan Alley sound of the Roaring Twenties at its best. For our spin on it, Randall Morton joins in on 5-string banjo, which in tandem with my tenor banjo sounds almost piano-like, don’t’cha think?
Keep My Skillet Good & Greasy
(Uncle Dave Macon) I first heard this song on the original Uncle Dave Macon recording, but it was Frank Lee of the Freight Hoppers who inspired us to move it from the banjo to slide guitar. Check out the video here, which was directed and filmed by Jonathan Thomason.
Deep River Blues
(Doc Watson) I love to buy music on whim when I travel, to take a chance and judge a book (well, a CD) by its cover. My introduction to old-time music came from one such purchase on a trip to Gatlinburg in the spring of 2006. I was in the gift shop at the welcome center for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, perusing a wall of CDs and trying to find some appropriate music—preferably banjo music, I thought—for my solo auto tour of the Cade’s Cove loop. I was drawn to the 3 disk boxed set Legacy, with Doc Watson and David Holt, and it did not disappoint. Doc’s version of the Delmore brothers’ “Big River Blues,” which he recorded as “Deep River Blues,” is what made me want to start playing this music in the first place.
Dallas Rag
(Dallas String Band) – Another one lifted from the Jake Leg Stompers repertoire, “Dallas Rag” was recorded by the otherwise obscure Dallas String Band on December 6, 1927. Our friends Will and Jennifer Grover join us on guitar and violin, respectively. Once we played this as a wedding processional at the Shack Up Inn at Clarksdale, Mississippi—you should have seen the bride coming down the aisle, all smiles!
Lindyberg Hop
(Mempis Jug Band) Here I put down the kazoo and let Jamie and Abe shine on harmonica and violin, respectively—for those of you who associate this song with my kazoo virtuosity, you’ll just have to catch us live. The Memphis Jug Band recorded more than 100 sides between 1927 and 1934, with a revolving door membership that included Will Shade, Charlie Burse, Memphis Minnie, Will Weldon and the list goes on and on. The Side Street Steppers are the 21st Century reincarnation of the Memphis Jug Band.
I Ain't Your Hen, Mr. Fly Rooster
(Martha Copeland) Vera found this 1928 gem on a Document compilation. Little is known of Martha Copeland, other than that she recorded for OKeh and Columbia between 1923 and 1928. We also play her “Everybody Does It Now,” which will likely make it onto our next record.
Mythological Blues
(Ernest Rodgers) The Old Time Herald published a list of “Essential Hillbilly Recordings on 78s,” compiled by Ron Cole, in the April-May 2008 issue. They allowed downloads of the seven tunes on the Herald’s website, and I made myself a little CD. “Mythological Blues” turned out to be a topically appropriate find as Vera was just finishing up her degree in Classics at the University of Alabama.
Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama
(Butterbeans & Suzie) Butterbeans & Suzie were a popular black comedy team on the vaudeville circuit in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, and they were best known for their hokum numbers. Hokum is an intentionally funny song form that uses drawn out analogies or euphemisms to make, more often than not, sexual innuendos.
The Blackest Crow
(Traditional Appalachian) This is the one piece of pure Appalachia that made it onto the record, though we dearly love to play fiddle tunes and old country songs at our shows. Needless to say, when we were on the coffee house circuit in Memphis it was the one song guaranteed to bring the coffee grinders to life. Nobody in the band misses those days. I first heard this song on a Rising Appalachia CD back in 2007, and have since heard more and varied versions than I could even hope to remember. I’m pretty sure our version owes something to the playing and singing of David White down in River Falls, South Carolina.
Southern Blues
(Scottdale String Band) This number comes courtesy of Adam Tanner and his Dirty Rag Mob’s CD entitled Rare Rags & Stringband Blues, which I picked up from John Hatton’s traveling Cleff’d Ear music store at Breakin’ Up Winter in Lebanon, Tennessee in 2008. Our version differs from Adam’s and the original, due to my impatience with wanting to play the tune before actually learning it. This happens a lot, and has lead to the distinct settings you hear on a lot of our tunes and songs.
T'Ain't No Sin
(Lee Morse) We heard this first from the Jake Leg Stompers on their Hot Feet CD, and then came across the Lee Morse recording. Jeremy Barzizza joins the Steppers on tenor saxophone, both on this studio track and the video, which also features the dancing of the Memphis Red Hot Lindy Hoppers. The video was shot in the back room at Ernestine and Hazel’s on South Main Street in Memphis, which was formerly a brothel. Watch it at on our videos page here at SideStreetSteppers.com
Wild About My Lovin'
(Jim Jackson) I’m not sure where I found this song or how our version came to be, but it must have started with Geoff Mulduar. Or John Sebastian, actually, who was my introduction to Geoff and his music. This song is our most frequent closing number, and I have changed the words to sing about going back to Memphis rather than St. Louis. Depending on how we are feeling, the middle section with the “I’m not the ____ but the ____’s son” can be expanded to include everything & the kitchen sink, the naughtier the lyrics the better. That section is not included on this family-friendly recording, you’ll simply have to catch us live to sink to that level of entertainment…
