by Dr. Barry Lee Pearson
“I’m Gonna Go Let the World Hear the Hemphills”
Jessie Mae Hemphill (1923-2006) was born in Como, Mississippi. The granddaughter of legendary songster and multi-instrumentalist Sid Hemphil and the niece of Rosa Lee Hemphill, she learned to play guitar, piano and drums at an early age. An exemplar of the hill country sound characteristic of the Senatobia Como region, she was mentored by her grandfather and later promoted by blues scholar fieldworkers George Mitchell and David Evans. Active on the blues festival circuit during the 1980s, she recorded for Vogue High Water and Black and Blue and was also known as She-Wolf. Interviewed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., June 28, 1986.
Jessie Mae Hemphill: “My granddaddy Sid Hemphill, he played violin and I always did try to play the violin. I was a little old girl. I played tambourine. The first thing I started on, I was playing tambourine and when I was two years old I was dancing. And my cousin she was 23 and she learned me how to dance at two years old. And then I would go to places with my granddaddy and win prizes on the stage.
And from two years old on, I danced, see. Then I went to the guitar and I tried to learn how to play the guitar. So I did learn but I learned, we had a little outhouse you know out in the yard. And I would go out there and fasten up in there and pick and sing. Bob. And I didn’t want my mama to hear my singing no blues.
And I would pick. I would go somewhere and hear a record. I come back and go out and I sit down and I pick until I get the tune to that record and then I would sing and play it. And they didn’t know I could play in a long time. I just kept it hid.
And so one day I let my granddaddy hear me. We was going to town and granddaddy was walking along and I walking along carrying his fiddle, you know, to play for peoples and I had my little tambourine and I had the guitar. And I took and started to beating the guitar rhythm behind, so they wouldn’t hear me. And my granddaddy stopped and he listened. Then he said, “What did you get that from?” That’s what he said. And he said, “Come on up here little (lady) and let granddaddy hear what you’re doing.”
And I come on up there where he was and picked it for him. But I had been picking a long time but I wouldn’t let them know. And I played that guitar. From then on granddaddy always wanted me to play. Then he always was teaching me how to go play something else and play something else and he would tune it for me.
And then about 10 or 11 he had learned me how to tune in what I wanted to play.
So, my mother learned me how to play “Bullying Well” and her name was Virgie Lee Hemphill. So she learned me how to play “Bullying Well.” They was playing “Bullying Well” all the time. My aunties played “Bullying Well” so my mother said, “Now you want to play ‘Bullying Well’ we gonna learn you.” So she learned me how to play “Bullying Well” and my Aunt Rosie Hemphill she learned me how to play “Roll and Tumble Cried All Night Long.” And so from that I learned all my granddaddy’s pieces and then I would learn pieces from records and then I would go back to the house and learn them to my granddaddy. And he thought it was wonderful. And everybody thought it was wonderful for me, so little that I couldn’t even get my arm over the guitar.
So, by nine years old I was really playing really good. I had about seven or eight pieces I could play real good when I was nice. And I play the organ. We had an organ. My auntie had a piano and I would play them too. I learned boogies and things on there. Learned one piece on my granddaddy’s fiddle was “Tennessee Waltz.” I learned that on that fiddle and I had myself something. Yeah, I used to love to play that. My mamma and then got that waltz. That Tennessee Waltz, they could dance like that. So I played it and they would dance.
Then when I was coming to be 10 I was playing these drums, fife and drums. I was going with them to play in the fife and drum band. I couldn’t hold the drum up. Some man would have to hold the drum up for me. And then they would put a Coca-Cola box down there for me to stand on and I would beat that drum. I would beat that drum have all them people, they be up in the trees and things trying to see me beating the drum. I was so little. But I could beat that drum. I made my granddaddy proud of me. And I know he would be double proud of me now. My granddaddy, he played at picnics and at these big rich white folks’ houses and clubs. He played in them and they paid him good for playing. He made good money doing it but that was just right around home to maybe another town down, Sardis, Batesville, Senatobia, Coolwater, Como. And some man or another in Memphis at Wolf River would get him to come up and play for a picnic every year. So he did have something in Memphis too.
My granddaddy he mostly played violin, but he played guitar and a lot of people be there and while they rested it they want him to play the guitar for ‘em and he played the guitar and blowed this little old jazz horn. I can blow that little old jazz horn too. And he had nine brothers, my granddaddy did, and they all played some kind of instrument. They had horns and banjos. I been raised up with all of that: guitar, bass fiddles and all that kind of stuff we had in the family – fifes, piano, everything that was there, everything. But I ended up with this guitar because that wouldn’t be hard on me.
I play a spiritual and I would play that tambourine I gets in to it when I get in them songs. I always end with a spiritual song. See it’s gets me more spiritual, gives me more spirit and more strength too every time I play a spiritual because I tell you the reason I really do it, my granddaddy said “I don’t care what you done played and how long you done played, when you get ready to quit always play a spiritual song.” Because you don’t know if you live to play any ore. You don’t know if you live the next day or what. But you will be done and your playing up with God’s spiritual, that’s why I do it.
I played for birthdays, if some of my friends have a birthday I’d go play for that. But I never liked to play at no house parties. I don’t want to do that or play at no juke. It’s too dangerous. You’ll get killed for nothing. You get up there and you start to playing and sometimes you’d be at these places where womens is jealous of their man. And cause one of them maybe say play Miss Hemphill or you know be over there telling me to play something. And one of them get jealous of it and could hurt me. You know and I wouldn’t be meaning nothing. So I don’t play at them kind. I play where I have protection for myself, places like this where I know somebody there gonna help watch over me. But at a juke and a house party, I don’t play for them. I’ll play a big club but there’s gonna be cops there. And the most I got is festivals. I goes to all these blues festivals and play and there’d be more people there than me and there ain’t nobody jealous of nobody. Because everybody laugh and talk with people. That’s what I like. I don’t like to be in a place like that private something, you say something to the wrong man, you got a fight somebody. Cause see I ain’t going to fight with nobody.
I ain’t gonna fight with nobody because just “Boom Boom” I ain’t got no one to fight but just me, one. I don’t know how many there be of them. You go to a place like that you, they’ll try to gang you up you know. Or friends, and somebody else they try to gang up on me. My granddaddy, he wanted me to learn whatever I wanted to learn. He wanted me to be like that. Then after he passed, my mamma passed, my auntie all passed. I as so sad. And I said “I’m gonna go and do what my granddaddy didn’t have a chance to do.” I said, “I’m gonna go let the world hear the Hemphills, some of their music. And I just went to learning songs. Songs went to coming to me. And I went to learning my own songs. I started out just like that with my own songs. And I said “I’m gonna go and go and go. And I did that. I been doing it too. I been going and letting the folks hear the Hemphills. I hope I can keep everything going. I’m gonna try to live long as I can and die when I can’t help it. (Laughter.)”
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Dr. Barry Lee Pearson, Professor in the English Department at the University of Maryland stands as the most steadfast supporter of the local acoustic blues scene in the greater Washington, D.C., area and beyond. As a musician, author, college lecturer, folklorist, and personal friend to the musicians, he has been the voice of this regional blues scene.