Jessie Mae Hemphill (1923-2006)

photo by Steve Gardner

Let’s hear it for Ms. Jessie Mae Hemphill – a self proclaimed cowgirl, a pistol packing mama, a raw, gritty, talented northern Mississippi hill country blues singer and multi-instrumentalist. We hold her in high esteem over here at nakedcowgirl vintage. Though her commercial heyday was in the 1980s, Jessie Mae has played music most all of her life – she started her musical career when she was a young gal playing drums in a fife & drum band at local parties and picnics throughout the Mississippi hills. At around 8 years old, she learned guitar from her grandfather, Sid Hemphill, a blind band leader & multi-instrumentalist, who was renowned throughout the region, and was first recorded by Alan Lomax in the 1940s. He is certainly worth checking out as well; his rendition of John Henry is one of the best I’ve ever heard. Jessie Mae definitely inherited her grandfather’s raucous, happy, primal style of playing. The rhythm she establishes with her electric guitar (played in traditional Delta fashion) and a tambourine attached to her ankle, not to mention her distinct voice, is impossible to resist. Have a listen and see if you can keep from getting down.