Peg leg sam biography of barack
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His father worked him so hard as a child that he was glad when a rainy day came. "I went to a school when it rained, " he says. "My daddy bought me a 10-cent harp once for Christmas," he says, "and I heard people playing that song they call 'Reuben.' I wanted to play that song, bad. You can listen anytime by clicking on the Classic Folk stream on the Folk Alley website or app.
They began to issue recordings of his music and introduced him to the college and festival circuit, first at UNC and Duke University, then at Philadelphia, Wolf Trap, Boston, and Washington, at the National Folk Life Festival. In 1973, his childhood friend, Henry "Rufe" Johnson, supplied both guitar and vocals, as did Baby Tate, to a couple of tracks on Peg Leg Sam's album, Medicine Show Man.
He died in Jonesville in October 1977, at the age of 65.
Documentary
A biography of Peg Leg Sam, Born for Hard Luck, was released by Tom Davenport in 1976.
Peg's last regular medicine-show performances were with "Chief Thundercloud" (Leo Kahdot, a Potawatomie from Oklahoma, who began his long career playing piano and trumpet in vaudeville). He began performing on the Medicine Show circuit during the Depression and continued to tour this way for most of the rest of his life.
He wasn’t discovered by the recording industry until 1972, when he was 61 years old.
He was able to play harmonica with his nose, and could play two harmonicas at once. He shined shoes, worked as a houseboy, cooked on ships, hoboed, and then made a living busking on street corners. If you plow a mule all day and into the night, you feel just as tired when you get up as when you lay down. He left home at the age of 12 and never stopped roving.
His ability to play two harmonicas at once (while one went in and out of his mouth) made him an attraction; he could also play notes on a harmonica with his nose. An excerpt from the documentary appears in the French film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain.
Black History Month: Honoring Peg Leg Sam
Peg Leg Sam was born Arthur Jackson in December 1911, in Jonesville, South Carolina.
He began playing harmonica as a child and left home at the age of 12 to make his own way in the world.
For many years he performed in a series of troups run by Dr. Kerr, Dr. Thompson, "old Jeffries" (who weaseled out of paying Peg Leg Sam), and Dr. Silas Green.
For 25 of these years he also returned annually to Rocky Mount, N.C., to work and play music for 4 months for Fenner's Tobacco Warehouse. Jackson retired from the road after Kahdot's death in 1973.
Two blues collectors--Bruce Bastin (of Flyright Records) and Pete Lowry (of Trix Records)-- had met Peg Leg Sam while visiting "Baby" Tate in 1970.
He gained his nickname following an accident whilst hoboing in 1930.
Biography
Arthur Jackson was born in Jonesville, South Carolina, the fourth of six children of David Jackson, a farmer and native of Virginia, and Emma Jackson. Peg Leg Sam gave his last medicine-show performance in 1972 in North Carolina but continued to appear at music festivals in his final years.
Peg's Bio
From the booklet "Study Materials and Script for Born for Hard Luck" by Daniel W. Patterson and Allen E. Tullos (Chapel Hill: UNC Curriculum in Folklore, 1981).
His Life, 1911-1977
Arthur Jackson was born on a farm near Jonesville, S.C., in 1911, and grew up sharing a one-room log cabin with his parents and 5 brothers and sisters.
In 1973, his childhood friend, Henry "Rufe" Johnson, supplied both guitar and vocals, as did Baby Tate, to a couple of tracks on Peg Leg Sam's album, Medicine Show Man.
He died in Jonesville in October 1977, at the age of 65.
A biography of Peg Leg Sam, Born for Hard Luck, was released by Tom Davenport in 1976.
She may have had a white mother or father (more likely a white father, as would have been more typical of the period).
Peg Leg Sam taught himself to play harmonica as a small child.