banjo joe

guc cannon was born on September 12, 1883, in Bed Banks, Mississippi (Marshall County). As a kid he had always been interested in music. He even made his own banjo from a guitar neck and a bed pan. He got his first real banjo when he was fifteen. Cannon was a remarkable musician. During the 1920's and 1930's, jug bands started to make the music scene. Jug bands played "blues" style music with a slight country sound. One member of the band would play a jug by blowing over the top of it, thus the name. Cannon was able to strap a jug around his neck so that he could blow into it and play his banjo at the same time. Gus Cannon did have his own jug band called Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers. The bad consisted of five people: Cannon (banjo/guitar), Noah Lewis (harmonica), Ashely Thompson (guitar), and two other guitarists named Hosea Woods and Elijah Avery. They became very popular as they started out in 1928, but soon they had to stop recording due to the Depression in the 1930's. Cannon's recording career started again in 1956. In the 1960' s he was able to play at some folk and blues festivals. He also played through the 1970s but died in 1979 at the age of ninety-six.