Biography
12 September 1883, Red Banks, Mississippi, USA, d. 15 October 1979, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. As a youth, Cannon was a proficient fiddler, as well as a guitarist and pianist, but his main instrument was the banjo. Cannon, whose parents had been slaves, made his first banjo at the age of 12 from a guitar neck and a bread pan. He was taught to play in Clarksdale, Mississippi, by a musician named Bud Jackson and studied other local players, such as W.C. Handy. It was as "Banjo Joe" that Cannon appeared on the "medicine shows" every summer from 1914-29, working as a farm labourer during the winter months. While in Chicago with a medicine show he recorded for Paramount in 1927, with Blind Blake on guitar. Spurred on by the 1927 success of the Memphis Jug Band, Cannon added a coal-oil can on a neck harness to his equipment, and was signed when the Victor label came to Memphis in 1928. Cannon's Jug Stompers recorded annually from 1928-30, producing some of the finest and...
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