Sid Hemphill (1876 – 1963) was an American blues multi-instrumentalist and bandleader who played in his own string band mainly in Mississippi. He recorded for Alan Lomax in 1942 and again in 1959.
Born in Panola County, Mississippi, Hemphill was the son of a slave fiddle player, crafted instruments, and was a blind musician. Trained as a multi-instrumentalist, he could effectively play fiddle, banjo, guitar, jaw harp, piano, organ, quills, and the cane fife, while also penning songs.[1][2] Hemphill and his string band, composed of Alex "Turpentine" Askew (guitar), Lucious Smith (banjo), and Will Head (fiddle), played a combination of blues, popular music, and spirituals for both black and white audiences mainly in Northern Mississippi.[1][2] The same group also identified as a fife and drums band, with music infused in European military drum tradition and African polyrhythms, talking drum influences.[3] According to blues writer Edward Komara, Hemphill's quill playing was highly syncopated and offered the closest connection to traditional African music.[1]
Field collector and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax traveled to Senatobia to seek out Hemphill after a local string bandleader described him as the "boar-hog musician of the hills”, also proclaiming him as "the best musician in the world".[4] On August 15, 1942, Lomax recorded 22 songs and an interview with Hemphill and his group. Although the group identified as a string band, for the recordings they played fife and drums. Lomax recorded a second session with Hemphill when he revisited him in 1959.[4][5] Music critic Amanda Petrusich noted in a review for Pitchfork that "Hemphill's work incorporates attributes of the Mississippi Hill Country’s better-known traditions (the droning guitar blues mastered by McDowell, R.L. Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough, and the fife-and-drum music practiced by Otha Turner, Napoleon Strickland, and Hemphill himself)", which differs from the neighboring Delta blues.[4] His best-known song "The Eighth of January" became the basis for Johnny Horton's hit "The Battle of New Orleans".[2]
Hemphill died in 1963, having never commercially recorded any of his songs for release in his lifetime. Nonetheless, his two field sessions with Lomax were made more accessible by the release of the compilation album The Devil's Dream in 2013. Other members of the Hemphill family also became musicians, including his daughter Rosa Lee Hill, and his paternal granddaughter, Jessie Mae Hemphill, a pioneering guitarist.[4]
Hemphill was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in Senatobia.[6]
^ abcKomara, Edward (2006). Encyclopedia of the Blues. Psychology Press. p. 419. ISBN 9780415926997.
^David Evans (1972). "Black Fife and Drum Music in Mississippi". Mississippi Folklore Register. 6 (3): 94–107. Archived from the original on 2017-03-09. Retrieved 2016-10-29 – via Folkstreams.
^ abcdPetrusich, Amanda. "The Devil's Dream Alan Lomax's 1942 Library of Congress". pitchfork.com. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
^"What Makes a Musical Legacy". thinkprogress.org. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
SidHemphill (1876 – 1963) was an American blues multi-instrumentalist and bandleader who played in his own string band mainly in Mississippi. He recorded...
fife-and-drum bands, beginning with the band led by her paternal grandfather, SidHemphill, in which she played snare drum and bass drum. Aside from sitting in...
recordings of Henry Thomas in the 1920s, and the Delta blues musician SidHemphill. More recently, Dom Flemons has revived the playing of the quills. Soinari...
was the common-law wife of, Charley Patton. Rosa Lee Hill, daughter of SidHemphill, learned guitar from her father and by the time she was ten, was playing...
banjo music for the Carolinas, the fiddle and the sounds of folks like SidHemphill, Henry Thomas and Peg Leg Howell." His album, Black Cowboys (2018), was...
include "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby", recorded in 1959 by Sidney Hemphill Carter, and "O Death", recorded in the Georgia Sea Islands by Bessie Jones...
recorded black fife and drum music in 1942. He found a group, including SidHemphill, near Sledge, Mississippi consisting of a cane fife, two snare drums...
multitalented Robert Belfour, Calvin Jackson, and SidHemphill. Burnside, Kimbrough, Othar Turner, and Jessie Mae Hemphill appeared in the documentary Deep Blues...
releases over the years. The daughter of Hill country blues musician SidHemphill, Rosa Lee learned guitar from her father and by the time she was ten...
Cooke Clarksdale Scott Radio Service Company Jackson Shake Rag Tupelo SidHemphill Senatobia Skip James Bentonia Son House Clack Sonny Boy Williamson Glendora...
sung by SidHemphill. This version was titled "John Henry" and accompanied by violin, played by Hemphill, and a drum, played by a friend of Hemphill, Will...
Stephanie Harris to Haughton Hauptman to Haynesworth Hearns to Helpern Hemphill to Hernando Herrick to Hill Hines to Holtz Honeker to Howard Howell to...
Hamlet. He rose to prominence in British film with his portrayals of Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Rosencrantz...
anger and anguish while onlookers watch. Sheriff Walter and Deputy Pete (Hemphill) hold down J.J. so that Dr. Vince (Harvey) can give a shot to calm the...
Preston Hemphill, and an unidentified officer, had also been relieved of duty. On February 3, it was announced that Hemphill had also been fired. Hemphill, who...
Colin, Merritt, George & MacEwen, William 2009, p. 24. Hemphill, Paul 2005, pp. 34–37. Hemphill, Paul 2005, pp. 39–40. Lipsitz 1994, p. 26. Escott, Colin...
Songs: "Live It Up" and "Red River Valley", both sung by guest star Ray Hemphill. "Steam, Cinders and Smoke", sung by Smiley Burnette and Rufe Davis 83...
Bissonnette, James LeGros, Matt Winston, Jules Bruff, John Ennis, John Hemphill, Ione Skye, Bob Stephenson, John Getz, Ed Setrakian, Candy Clark, David...
Mary Charlotte Wilcox 1980 – Tom Baker, Gabe Cohen, Steve Ehrlick, John Hemphill, Kathleen Laskey, Denise Pidgeon, Wendy Slutsky 1981 – Ken Innes, Jerrold...
In November 2021, Sides found a car containing the body of Miriam Ruth Hemphill, who had been missing since July 2005. In December 2021, he found the car...
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