There are many similarities and differences between Walyer "Furry" Lewis, Frank Stokes, Bessie Smith, Gus Cannon, and Jim Jackson. All five individuals performed in Memphis at some point during the early 1900s. Lewis, Stokes, Cannon, and Jackson each played guitar, but Smith was exclusively a singer. Along with the guitar Cannon also played the banjo, trombone, and piano. Lewis, Stokes, Cannon, and Jackson played at fish fries, suppers, parties, and also at medicine shows, which employed entertainers to draw a crowd to a tent or wagon where vendors hawked alcohol-based patent medicines. Bessie Smith sang at shows and theaters with her heavy, throaty vocals which were balanced by a delightful sense of timing. Walter "Furry" Lewis was known …show more content…
Lewis took the job as a sweeper during the Great Depression. Stokes was a blacksmith for most of his life. Cannon had a variety of jobs, including sharecropping, ditch digging, and yard work. Both Lewis and Smith eventually stared and cameo 'd in movies. Bands were formed around a couple of these individuals. A few of these individuals also played with each other occasionally. Stokes formed the Beale Street Sheiks, and Cannon made the band Cannon 's Jug Stompers, which played with Jim Jackson and also Walter Lewis often. Furry Lewis had played with Bessie Smith in Chicago during the 1930s. The onset of the great depression had different effects on each of these individuals. For Lewis, his career came to a halt, but he was rediscovered in 1960 and did movie cameos, and talk show appearances. Stokes wad hardly affected, and continued playing at tent shows such as the Ringling Brothers Circus during the 1930s and 1940s. Bessie Smith 's popularity waned during the Great Depression but remained popular is smaller towns. Financial appeal faded for bands like Cannon 's Jug Stompers and they broke apart. Jackson quickly fell with the Great Depression and did his last recording in