Blind Dog Radio

Jack Kelly

Blues singer and guitarist from Memphis, b. March 12, 1905 near Middleton and Rogers Springs, Hardeman County, TN, d. September 9, 1953 at home in Memphis, TN. Kelly recorded for ARC in 1933, and for Vocalion in 1939.

"Kelly's last known recordings were in 1952 with Walter Horton for the then new Sun label, but no complete copy of the disc credited to 'Jackie Boy & Little Walter' has yet been found." (The Penguin guide to blues recordings (2006), p. 343)

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By Jason Ankeny
Singer/guitarist Jack Kelly was the frontman of the South Memphis Jug Band, a popular string band whose music owed a heavy debt to the blues as well as minstrel songs, vaudeville numbers, reels and rags. Little is known of the hoarse-voiced Kelly's origins; he led the group in tandem with fiddler Will Batts, and they made their first recordings in 1933, followed in 1939 by a second and final session. Although the South Memphis Jug Band's lineup changed frequently, Kelly remained a constant, leading the group in various incarnations until as late as the mid-'50s; he died in Memphis in 1960.