HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Peg Leg Howell

Born Joshua Barnes Howell in Eatonton, Georgia, on 5 March 1888, life had been a conspicuously mean one for Peg Leg Howell. Howell had started his rough life as a farm laborer, until he was shot in the right leg during a fight and it had to be amputated. No longer able to work in the fields, he turned to music, migrating to Atlanta, Georgia, to busk on the streets. That, of course, couldn't pay the rent, so he started selling bootleg liquor. For which he went to prison. He wrote 'New Prison Blues', below, while incarcerated. Upon release he started performing on street corners again. This uniquely resulted in a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1926. Howell plays guitar and sings vocals on all tracks below.

'Coal Man Blues' Peg Leg Howell

First title of first session

8 Nov 1926 in Atlanta Matrix 143116-2 Columbia 14194-D

Composition: Papa Charlie Jackson

'Tishamingo Blues' Peg Leg Howell

8 Nov 1926 in Atlanta Matrix 143117-1 Columbia 14194-D

Composition: Spencer Williams

Tishamingo = a town and county in northeast Mississippi

'New Prison Blues' Peg Leg Howell

8 Nov 1926 in Atlanta Matrix 143118-1 or 2 Columbia 14177-D

Composition: Howell

'New Jelly Roll Blues' Peg Leg Howell

8 April 1927 in Atlanta Matrix 143941-1 Columbia 14210-D

Guitar: Henry Williams Violin: Eddie Anthony

Composition: ?

'Beaver Slide Rag' Peg Leg Howell

8 April 1927 in Atlanta Matrix 143942-1 Columbia 14210-D

Guitar: Henry Williams Violin: Eddie Anthony

Composition: ?

Beaver Slide = a black slum near the University of Atlanta

'Ball and Chain Blues' Peg Leg Howell

8 April 1927 in Atlanta Matrix 148270-2 Columbia 14210-D

Mandolin: Jim Hill

Composition: ?

'Skin Game Blues' Peg Leg Howell

9 Nov 1927 in Atlanta Matrix 145185-2 Columbia 14473-D

Composition: Howell

'Please Ma'am' Peg Leg Howell

20 April 1928 in Atlanta Matrix 146159-1 or 2 Columbia 14356-D

Composition: ?

'Low-Down Rounder Blues' Peg Leg Howell

20 April 1928 in Atlanta Matrix 146161-1 Columbia 14320-D

Composition: ?

'Fairy Blues' Peg Leg Howell

20 April 1928 in Atlanta Matrix 146162-2 Columbia 14356-D

Composition: Howell

'Banjo Blues' Peg Leg Howell

27 Oct 1928 in Atlanta Matrix 147322-1 Columbia 14382-D

Violin: Eddie Anthony

Composition: ?

'Turkey Buzzard Blues' Peg Leg Howell

30 Oct 1928 in Atlanta Matrix 147343-2 Columbia 14382-D

Violin: Eddie Anthony

Composition: ? See Daniel Gutstein

'Monkey Man Blues' Peg Leg Howell

13 April 1929 in Atlanta Matrix 148271-2 Columbia 14426-D

Mandolin: Jim Hall

Composition: Cripple Clarence Lofton

'Chittlin' Supper' Peg Leg Howell

13 April 1929 in Atlanta Matrix 148272-1 Columbia 14426-D

Mandolin: Jim Hall

Composition: ?

Howell's final sessions had arrived in Atlanta on 13 April 1929 with Jim Hill at mandolin. (On December 9, 1930, several tracks by Macon Ed and Tampa Joe went down in Atlanta. Macon Ed is Eddie Anthony. Stefan Wirz inconclusively suggests that Tampa Joe may have been either Howell, Jim Hill or Henry Williams.) Unfortunately, Howell's recording career couldn't pay the rent, so he started bootlegging again while performing on the streets. He didn't end up in jail this time, but would lose his left leg of diabetes in 1952 at the age of sixty-four, consigning him to a wheelchair and ineluctable poverty.

Upon rediscovery in 1963 at age 75 Howell made his last recordings, documented in Atlanta by folklorist, George Mitchell. Those saw issue in 1964 on the album, 'The Legendary Peg Leg Howell', by Testament Records. That was a very different Howell, having weathered some deterioration during his last few decades in obscurity. He died soon later in Atlanta on August 11, 1966.