The Jelly Roll Kings were an American

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

band. The members of the band were

Frank Frost Frank Otis Frost (April 15, 1936 or 1938 – October 12, 1999) was one of the foremost American Delta blues harmonica players of his generation. Life and career Most sources state that Frost was born in 1936 in Auvergne, Jackson County, Arkansas ...

(keyboard/harmonica),

Big Jack Johnson Jack N. Johnson, known as Big Jack Johnson (July 30, 1939 or 1940 – March 14, 2011) was an American electric blues musician, one of the "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound." He was one ...

(guitar) and

Sam Carr Sam Carr (July 7, 1906 – 1989) was an organizer for the Communist Party of Canada and its successor, the Labor-Progressive Party, in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born Schmil Kogan in Tomashpil, Ukraine, in 1906 and immigrated to Canada in 1924, ...

(drums). Some of their most well-known songs included "The Jelly Roll King", and "Catfish Blues".Skelly, Richard " The Jelly Roll Kings Biography,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, retrieved 2010-10-07

Career

The three had been playing together irregularly from 1962 and into the 1970s under the name The Nighthawks. In 1979, they were invited by

Michael Frank Michael Frank (December 12, 1804December 26, 1894) was a German American pioneer, newspaper editor, and politician. He was the first Mayor of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and is regarded as the father of Wisconsin public schools. Early life Michael Fran ...

to record now as The Jelly Roll Kings; their debut album, ''Rockin' the Juke Joint Down'', was the debut release of the

Earwig Music Company Earwig Music Company is an American blues and jazz independent record label, founded by Michael Frank in October 1978 in Chicago. From 1975 until 1977 Frank was employed by the Jazz Record Mart, like Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records and Jim O' ...

. In the following years they kept performing separately, but were recorded again.

Fat Possum Records Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...

released the Kings 1997 follow-up, ''Off Yonder Wall''. It was produced by Robert Palmer, and included tracks such as "

That's Alright Mama "That's All Right" is a song written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup and recorded in 1946. The song was rereleased in early March 1949 under the title "That's All Right, Mama", which was issued as RCA's first rhythm and ...

" and "

Baby Please Don't Go An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

." Frank Frost died in 1999, Sam Carr followed in 2009, and Big Jack Johnson in 2011.

Discography

*''Rockin' the Juke Joint Down'' (1979), Earwig *''Off Yonder Wall'' (1997),

Fat Possum In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple e ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jelly Roll Kings, The American blues musical groups Fat Possum Records artists Earwig Music artists