Jessie Mae Hemphill (1923-2006)

The “Delta Queen,” the “She-Wolf,” the electric guitar playing, fur coat, rhinestone studded high heal wearing, gunslinging, blues writing Black woman, Jessie Mae Hemphill. I used to be one of those who hadn’t yet been graced by her melodic voice, the tapping of a tambourine strapped to her foot, and her rhythmic electric guitar, but once I was, I was immediately drawn to her. Personally, she reminded me of my family. The southern drawl in her voice brought images of my great grandmother to mind. While Hemphill donned a fierce attitude on stage and the presence of a grandmother while off it, my great grandmother roller skated and clubbed at night and handed candy out to children in church the next Sunday morning (dubbing her Granny Gumdrops). A guitar that Hemphill holds in a picture while sitting on a Cadillac reminds me of my grandfather, a man of many talents, who gifted my mother and I his Epiphone before passing. And of course, Hemphill’s daring fashion style, sent my mind straight to my grandmother; a woman who swears she is 5’5’ but just barely breaches 5’2,’ and wears massive high heels with hot pink jumpsuits, leaving all the other middle school children staring at me in envy and confusion on grandparents' day when she strutted in larger than life saying, “That’s your GRANDMA!” I share all of this to say that the combination of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s sheer awesomeness and her random connections to my family created a spell that was cast on me, and I was immediately, hopelessly, and unequivocally obsessed.

Jessie Mae Hemphill was born Jessie Mae Graham in Panola County Mississippi to parents Vergie "Bertha" Mae Hemphill and James Graham (Department of Commerce - Bureau of the Census, 1940; Evans, 1991). Her birthday is cited as October 18, 1923, by the Jessie Mae Hemphill foundation, however her birthyear has been disputed, with different sources citing it as 1932, 1934, and 1937 (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007). Hemphill came from one of Mississippi’s most famous musical families, which explains why in an interview with Robert Nicholson (1998), Hemphill stated that she had been full of music since she was born. Her father was a talented blues pianist who Hemphill herself claims was the best piano player in the world (Nicholson, 1998; Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007). Her mother Virgie and aunts, Sidney Lee Hemphill, and Rosa Lee Hill were all multi-instrumentalists, the latter having been recorded by musicologist and folklorist Alan Lomax in 1959 (Russell, 2006). Hemphill believed her family inherited their musical passion from her grandfather Sid Hemphill. He was a well-known blind multi-instrumentalist and leader of a fife-and-drum band. He was also recorded by Alan Lomax in 1942 and again in 1959 (Lusk, 2006). Those recordings are now in the Library of Congress (Munding, 2016). Sid Hemphill’s father, Doc Hemphill, was also a famous fiddle player (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007).

Hemphill’s musical development started early on in childhood. She began playing the tambourine when she was just two years old, going on to win a contest for it when she was a teenager (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007). She also began dancing on stage at the age of two, which explains the development of her strong stage presence that she carried into adult hood (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, 1982; Pearson, n.d.). When she was seven or eight years old, she began learning guitar (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007). She started by playing songs she heard on blues records in her house on an old acoustic guitar with plastic strings. At first, she practiced in secret in an outhouse behind her family’s home because she didn’t want her mother knowing that she was playing the blues (Evans, 1991; Pearson, n.d.). During this time in her childhood Hemphill used to lead her grandfather around to different houses that he needed to visit to either perform music or carpentry, while carrying his instruments or tools (Evans, 1991). It was on one of these many walks that she decided to start picking on his guitar. He heard her and happily urged her to no longer hide her abilities and continue playing in the company of the rest of their family (Pearson, n.d.).

In many interviews Hemphill expressed the impact that her grandfather had on her life. He was one of the first people to discover her guitar playing abilities, he taught her skills outside of musicianship such as carpentry, and most of all she served as his sight when outside of the house, so they spent a lot of time together. At the same time, Jessie Mae Hemphill has also credited the women in her family for her musical development. Hemphill recalled constantly watching her aunt Rosa Lee Hill pick guitar day and night, playing church songs and blues (Evans, 1991). The first song that Hemphill ever learned was Hill’s “Bullyin’ Well” which she learned from her mother Virgie (Pearson, n.d.). This song later appeared on Hemphill’s first full length album “She-Wolf,” published in 1981. Rosa Lee Hill also directly taught Jessie Mae Hemphill how to play “Roll and Tumble Cried all Night Long” (Pearson, n.d., 2005). In one interview, Hemphill even said that the first guitar she ever received was a Nashville from her Aunt Sidney (or Cindy)! That very same guitar is on the cover of her 1981 She-Wolf album (Evans, 1991).

About a year after learning to play guitar, Hemphill also learned to play the bass and snare drum. Her skills as a drummer were reflected in the percussive style she developed on guitar (Lusk, 2006). Jessie Mae Hemphill recounted the story of how she learned during her appearance on an episode of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood with Othar Turner and Ed Young in 1982 (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, 1982). Hemphill began learning to play the drums when she was nine years old. She would turn over a pasteboard box, grab a spoon and a knife, and play with her “sticks” (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, 1982). One day she sat in a chair with a regular drum and began to practice on that. She recalled specifically the way that the sticks would bounce back being different from that of the pasteboard box, which caused her to adjust how she hit the drum to produce the specific sound that she wanted (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, 1982). Hemphill went on to perform the snare and bass drum at family picnics. She was so small that she would have to stand on a Coca Cola box while someone held the drum so that she could play it (Pearson, 2005). She was so good at playing at these events that at times she would make more money than her own grandfather (Nicholson, 1998).

By the time Jessie Mae Hemphill reached adulthood in the 1940s she was a multi-instrumentalist, capable of playing not only the guitar, drums, and tambourine, but also fife, flute, trombone, saxophone, harmonica, piano, quills, and didley bow (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007). During this time she played in a fife-and-drum band with Napoleon Strickland, which was said to have rivaled the likes of other famous blues musicians like Othar Turner (Lusk, 2006).

In the early 1950s Hemphill moved to Memphis. She had many skills besides her vast abilities as a musician, acquired from her family during childhood, which allowed her to work many different types of jobs in Memphis including as a cashier, a carpenter, and a dry cleaner when she wasn’t busking on Beale Street. In addition to all of this, she worked at a Memphis blues club, which led to her owning her own club for a period of time (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007; Lusk, 2006). During her time in Memphis, she met other famous blues musicians including Albert King, Robert Nighthawk, Junior Parker, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf. Hemphill also met B.B. King during her time in Memphis. During a break at a venue where King was playing, Hemphill and two other women decided to go on stage and play. They received such a positive reaction from the crowd that King and his band thought that the venue owners had hired another band to take over their show because they had taken too long (Lusk, 2006). Hemphill also claimed to have discovered Mississippi Fred McDowell during her time in Memphis (Evans, 1991).

In 1967 music historian George Mitchell interviewed and photographed Jessie Mae Hemphill for his book Blow My Blues Away. Mitchell was the first to record Hemphill, but the field recordings that he created were not released until many years later as part of the George Mitchell collection (Lusk, 2006). While living in Memphis she was briefly married to a man named either L.D or J.D Brooks. Although the marriage was short lived, Hemphill's early recordings with George Mitchell were made under the name Jessie Mae Brooks. When Jessie Mae Hemphill began to record professionally, she reverted back to the Hemphill name to preserve and carry on her family's musical legacy (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007).

After she returned to Mississippi, she sadly realized that she was the only musical member left in her family and decided that it would be her mission to “let the world hear the Hemphills" (Pearson, n.d.).

It was in the midst of this realization that she met musicologist David Evans who aided in the start of her commercial performing and recording career. He produced an unreleased recording of her in 1971 and 1973 prior to her name change (Lusk, 2006). Later in 1979 Evans recorded her two singles “Jessie’s Boogie” and “Standing in my Doorway Crying” and released them under the Highwater Recording Company label. She was one of the first artists that Evans ever recorded under the label, as it had only just recently been created as a division of the University of Memphis (then known as Memphis State University). “Standing in my Doorway Crying” later became a best seller for the label after its release in 1980. Evans introduced Hemphill to the French label Vogue who produced her first album “She-Wolf” in 1981. However, the album was only released in Europe due to issues with how the label was able to promote it (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007).

After the release of her first album, she toured Europe, playing shows in West Berlin, Germany, Sweden, and France (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, 1982; Nicholson, 1998). She showed up to every set with her powerful presence, high heeled studded shoes, and sequined dresses, but at the end of every set that she did, Hemphill always made sure to play a spiritual (Pearson, n.d.).

While in France she recorded tracks for the Mississippi Blues Festival album in 1986, which helped her to gain a degree of recognition in the states. Her second album Feelin’ Good was released on the HighWater label in 1990 (Pendergast & Pendergast, 2007).

Many have described Jessie Mae Hemphill’s music as classic folk blues with rhythmic guitar playing, chanting tambourine or bells, and her signature droning beautiful voice. Personally, I find that my experience listening to her music was mostly right on par with how most sources described it, but I also feel her music has a wider range. The first song of hers that I ever listened to was “Standing in My Doorway Crying” from her She-Wolf album. I was immediately drawn to her wonderful voice singing sorrowful lyrics about heartbreak, rising over the rhythmic tambourine and guitar. The style of this song was exactly what I expected based on several articles that I had read.

However, I then listened to “Boogie ‘Side the Road” from the same album and had a completely different experience. Her signature tambourine was present, and it was accompanied by her rhythmic guitar. But this time, for me, it sounded different. The obvious contrast between the two songs was the absence of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s voice soaring over the instrumental background, but this change in particular caused the guitar to take a more prominent role in the song. Her picking patterns were rhythmic and catchy, with the presence of subtle harmonies. For lack of a better way of describing it, the guitar sounded as though it was dancing. I remember playing it aloud for the first time and looking down the hall to catch my mother shamelessly busting a move. It’s a song that makes you want to dance and smile, much like “Jessie’s Boogie.” In short, the style of the She-Wolf’s music ranges from melancholy, droning and rhythmic, to funky, jumping and jiving, with of course the occasional spiritual (like her sets, she ended most of her albums with one).

During her career she won W.C Handy Awards in 1987, 1988 and 1994 for Traditional Female Artist of the Year and was nominated for the same award in 1982, 1983, 1989 and in 2005. In 1991 she won a Handy Award for Acoustic Album of the Year for Feelin’ Good and the reissued version of the album was nominated again in 1998.

Even though over the course of her career Hemphill carried herself with ground shaking confidence on stage, she also grappled with the sexism that came along with being a woman who played the blues. Despite her being a woman blues musician who self-accompanied, she herself didn’t feel like a woman was supposed to be doing the things that she was, especially performing in a male dominated genre on a male dominate instrument.

Hemphill’s stance on women being on stage could perhaps make sense given the time period and how dominated the blues genre was by men, the only issue with this is her familial history. Her grandfather actively encouraged her to perform guitar and she watched her mother and aunts all perform on stage during her childhood family picnics. She also watched her aunt Rosa Lee Hill practice and perform guitar constantly.

Hemphill could have been making a distinction between professional blues musicians who she saw as predominantly men and amateur musicians who played in less formal settings like the family picnics during her childhood which included both men and women. Or it could have been the result of societal pressures and a lack of media representation that led her to believe that women simply did not belong on a stage in either situation. Regardless of her own internal battles, Hemphill performed on stage like she belonged there (because she did) until she couldn’t play anymore.

Unfortunately, Jessie Mae Hemphill’s career mostly ended in 1993 when she suffered a stroke. With her left side completely paralyzed she was no longer able to perform and retired to a trailer back in Mississippi with her dog SweetPea, only occasionally visited by her nurse. Although it is hard to imagine Jessie Mae Hemphill as anything other than the powerful, She-Wolf, her physical state after her stroke is unclear. Some sources cite Hemphill as being a shadow of herself after her stroke, barely being able to walk or do basic tasks and appearing much older than she was (Nicholson, 1998). Other sources, including interviews, cite her as being physically disabled but still clearly capable of doing almost everything for herself, like playing guitar and (using assistive devices) driving her beloved Cadillac!

Olga Wilhemine Munding, a friend of Jessie Mae Hemphill and founder of the Jessie Mae Hemphill foundation, shared a hilarious adventure that she had with the She-Wolf (whom she shared a birthday with!) after her stroke. Munding first discovered Hemphill’s record Feelin’ Good in the 1990s when she was deejaying at a radio station in Colorado. She was immediately intrigued by the Black woman guitarist wearing a cowboy hat and a corset, whose style came off as old school even though the album had been recently released. She tracked down Hemphill and visited her in her trailer, leading to Hemphill becoming a grandmother figure in her life. According to Munding, Hemphill had very strict rules about driving. When Munding crossed train tracks, she had to wait a specific amount of time, or Hemphill would yell at her about how trains could “come out of nowhere” and that she needed to be careful. Hemphill had a red Cadillac that she loved, and she would occasionally have Munding turn it on, let it run, and then cut it off. One day they went out for a drive with Hemphill at the wheel, and a very scared Munding on the passenger side because of Jessie Mae Hemphill's partial paralysis. After driving very slowly for a while, they came to a house, and Hemphill, unable to U-turn, drove through the house’s front yard and away, with the angry occupants running in tow. In response to the recounting of this event Munding commented, “After her stroke, she was still She-Wolf. She was still passionate, fierce, and determined to make it her way, whichever way it was. And she did” (Munding, 2016).

Whatever Hemphill’s state was after her stroke, it is clear she had a fantastic career. After she retired from performing live, she released several albums, including her gospel oriented album Dare you Do it Again released in 2004 which features her wonderful voice and her tambourine playing (Lusk, 2006). Jessie Mae Hemphill sadly passed away on July 22, 2006 at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee from complications related to an ulcer. Even though her performing and recording career was relatively short, Jessie Mae Hemphill’s legacy lives on. It lives on through her music and through all of her “Sister Fans” (Brooks, 2021) that idolize and follow her music and career even after her death (Brooks, 2021). It lives on and is honored through art. There is a wonderful exhibit in the 214 by CACHE gallery space in Springdale Arizona that immortalizes the face of Jessie Mae Hemphill as well as many other blues icons called “A Cast of Blues.” There are a total of 15 casts, created by artist Sharon McConnel-Dickerson, that are each accompanied by pictures of the artist that the casts honors taken by Ken Murphy, and placards with information about the artist’s life and career (Wallace, 2022). Finally, her legacy lives on through people like us, those who choose to read, write, or otherwise spread the word of her accomplishments. In 2005 Hemphill was interviewed by Guitar Player and asked about her family, her career, her personal feelings surrounding her career, and what remained of her guitar playing after her stroke (Foley, 2021). When asked if she missed her guitar, she provided the following response, which I feel perfectly sums up how Hemphill felt about her career, and how we should feel about it to.

Lady Plays the Blues Project © 2024 by Yoli Bergstrom-Lynch is licensed under CC BY 4.0  

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