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, ).
His Life,
Arthur Jackson was born on a farm near Jonesville, S.C., in , and grew up sharing a one-room log cabin with his parents and 5 brothers and sisters. 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. "Outside of that I always had something to do on the farmIf I'd a-stayed at home I wouldn't have known a thing, wouldn't have been able to do anything but plow a mule. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. I did a lot of work in vain--sixteen hours in June, July, August, working from sun to sun. 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. Plow all night too, dreaming."
At the age of 10 Jackson started running away from home. "Arthur would be out in the field plowing a mule, working in the hot sun," a neighbor recalls. "All of a sudden that mule's ears would prick up in the air, " and Arthur would stop to listen. Soon you would hear a f
Peg Leg Sam
Arthur Jackson, known as Peg Leg Sam (December 18, – October 27, ) was an American country blues harmonicist, singer and comedian. He recorded "Fox Chase" and "John Henry" and worked in medicine shows. He gained his nickname following an accident whilst hoboing in
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. His paternal great-grandmother, Racheal Williams, was born in Virginia and was commonly referred to as a mulatto. 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. He left home at the age of 12 and never stopped roving. He shined shoes, worked as a houseboy, cooked on ships, hoboed, and then made a living busking on street corners. He lost his leg in , trying to hop a train but made a peg out of a fencepost, bound it to his stub with a leather belt and kept moving.
He joined the medicine show circuit in , often performing with Pink Anderson. His ability to play two harmonicas at once (while one went in and out
Born for Hard Luck
Sample transcript from the film:
Peg performs 'Froggy Went A-Courting" in Whiteheads store, near his home in Union County, South Carolina.
Now Froggy went a-courting and he did ride, mm-hm
(Bad Frog!)
Oh the Froggy went a-courting and he did ride, unh-hunh
(Oh yes)
Froggy went a-courting and he did ride--
Sword and shield hanging by his side, unh-hunh, mm-hm
(That's the truth too, brother)
Ah, he rode up by Miss Mousie's door, uhn-hunh
Now there come Freddy. That's the truth, though)
Oh, he rode up by Miss Mousie's door, unh-hunh
(Bad Frog!)
Oh the Froggy went a-courting and he did ride, unh-hunh
(Oh yes)
Froggy went a-courting and he did ride--
Sword and shield hanging by his side, unh-hunh, mm-hm
(That's the truth too, brother)
Ah, he rode up by Miss Mousie's door, uhn-hunh
(Now there come Freddy. That's the truth, though)
Oh, he rode up by Miss Mousie's door, unh-hunh
Rode up by Miss Mousie's door--
Place he'd been many times before, unh-hunh
Hey, Miss Mousie, will you marry me? unh-hunh
(Lord, old Freddy)
Hey, Miss Mousie, will you marry me? unh-hunh
Black History Month: Honoring Peg Leg Sam
Peg Leg Sam was born Arthur Jackson in December , 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. He rolled through a number of odd jobs then lost his leg when trying to hop a train. As legend has it, he attached an old fence post to the stump with a leather belt—hence the nickname Peg Leg Sam.
He was a gifted harmonicist but also an avid song collector and storied performer. He was able to play harmonica with his nose, and could play two harmonicas at once. 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 , when he was 61 years old. Though he made a couple of professional recordings and released some live recordings he’d made with Louisiana Red, he died just five years after entering a studio for the first time.
Luckily, his recordings remain and are well worth a listen for fans of harmonica and the Piedmont blues.
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Throughout the month of February , Folk Alley is featuring great Black fo
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