Joshua Barnes Howell was born in March 5, 1888 in Eaton, Georgia.
He died in August 1966.
The nickname 'Peg Leg' was acquired after an incident with a shotgun in 1916, where his brother-in-law allegedly shot him in the leg. As a result, he lost his leg and was fitted with a prosthesis.
Howell recorded everything from ballads, such as "Skin Game Blues". to dance numbers, such as *"Beaver Slide Rag". Howell even recorded some jazz, such as "New Jelly Roll Blues".
1923, he moved to Atlanta and recorded for Columbia Records on November 8, 1926, cutting four sides including "New Prison Blues". Peg Leg’s career was cut short when he was sent to River Camp Prison for 'bootlegging'.
By 1952, diabetes had taken Howell’s other leg!
Image: Henry Williams (guitar) Eddie Anthony (fiddle), Eugene Pedin on mandolin. The line-up of this 'Gang' was to change often.1963, Testament Records recorded him 34 years after his last sessions. He was now 75 years old, both legs were gone; he suffered from diabetes and lived on welfare. According to some the new recordings did not have the magic of his earlier recordings.
“One of the most important aspects of Peg Leg Howell's music, is hearing the bridge between the influences of plantation work songs and traditional Blues music. It is a recorded link between the two forms.” says Merlin in Rags a fellow blogger, check it out.
Peg Leg Howell “Beaver Slide Rag”
*The Beaver Slide' was a barrelhouse or juke joint in the black section of Atlanta, Gorgia …
It is reported that in 1881 a journalist described the ‘Beaver Slide' on Decatur Street and referred to the "soul-harrowing music of a string band, the colored beaux and dusky damsels ...
trip the light fantastic toe, not forgetting to refresh themselves at the saloon counter when each dance is ended”
It would appear that this 1881 string bands were not just playing `hoe-downs', ‘jump-ups', etc. but surely something akin to the early blues when this reporter describes it as "soul-harrowing music". This was only some 7 years before Peg Leg Howell was born
in Eatonton, Ga. down in Putnam County.
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