Sid Hemphill (1876 – 1963) was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

multi-instrumentalist and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

who played in his own string band mainly in Mississippi. He recorded for

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...

in 1942 and again in 1959. Born in

Panola County, Mississippi Panola County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 33,208. Its county seats are Sardis, Mississippi, Sardis and Batesville, Mississipp ...

, Hemphill was the son of a slave

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

player, crafted instruments, and was a blind musician. Trained as a multi-instrumentalist, he could effectively play fiddle,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

jaw harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or Reed (mouthpiece), reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most like ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, organ, quills, and the cane fife, while also penning songs. Hemphill and his string band, composed of Alex "Turpentine" Askew (guitar), Lucious Smith (banjo), and Will Head (bass drum), played a combination of old time,

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

, and spirituals for both black and white audiences mainly in Northern Mississippi. The same group also identified as a fife and drums band, with music infused in European military drum tradition and African

polyrhythms Polyrhythm () is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-r ...

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, which can be used as a form of speech surrogacy by regulating its pitch and rhythm to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...

influences. According to blues writer Edward Komara, Hemphill's quill playing was highly syncopated and offered the closest connection to traditional African music.

Field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

collector and

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

traveled to Senatobia to seek out Hemphill after a local string bandleader described him as the "boar-hog musician of the hills”, also proclaiming him as "the best musician in the world". On August 15, 1942, Lomax recorded 22 songs and an interview with Hemphill and his group. Lomax recorded a second session with Hemphill when he revisited him in 1959. Music critic Amanda Petrusich noted in a review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' that "Hemphill's work incorporates attributes of the Mississippi Hill Country’s better-known traditions (the droning guitar blues mastered by McDowell, R.L. Burnside, and

Junior Kimbrough David "Junior" Kimbrough (July 28, 1930 – January 17, 1998) was an American blues musician. His best-known works are "Keep Your Hands off Her" and "All Night Long". In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. Early life Kimbrough was b ...

, and the fife-and-drum music practiced by

Otha Turner Othar "Otha" Turner (June 2, 1907 – February 27, 2003) was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum blues tradition. His music was also part of the African-American genre known as Hill country blues. Ea ...

Napoleon Strickland Napoleon Strickland (October 1, 1919 – July 21, 2001), sometimes known as Napolian Strickland, was a fife and drum blues artist, and songwriter, and vocalist specializing in country blues, specifically North Mississippi hill country blues. He ...

, and Hemphill himself)", which differs from the neighboring

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

. His best-known song "The Eighth of January" became the basis for

Johnny Horton John LaGale Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country, honky tonk, and rockabilly musician during the 1950s. He is best known for a series of history-inspired narrative country saga songs that became international ...

's hit "

The Battle of New Orleans "The Battle of New Orleans" is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood in 1936. The song describes the Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier; it tells the tale of the battle with a light tone and provides a rather comical v ...

". Hemphill died in 1963, having never commercially recorded any of his songs for release in his lifetime. Nonetheless, his two field sessions with Lomax were made more accessible by the release of the

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

''The Devil's Dream'' in 2013. Other members of the Hemphill family also became musicians, including his daughter Rosa Lee Hill, and his paternal granddaughter,

Jessie Mae Hemphill Jessie Mae Hemphill (October 18, 1923 – July 22, 2006) was an American electric guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist specializing in the North Mississippi hill country blues traditions of her family and regional heritage. Life and career Hemp ...

, a pioneering guitarist. Hemphill was honored with a marker on the

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) t ...

in Senatobia.

References

External links

Sid Hemphill: complete recordings
at the Alan Lomax Archive
Sidney Hemphill Carter
(Sid's daughter) at the Alan Lomax Archive
Sid Hemphill: complete 1942 session
on the