Joe McCoy

Blues guitarist Joe McCoy was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta town of Raymond. He taught himself to play guitar and was soon working at parties and picnics in the area around Jackson, MS, with his brother Charlie. In the mid-1920s he moved to Memphis, TN, and teamed up with Memphis Minnie and Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band. In 1929, calling himself Kansas Joe, he and Minnie signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. They also played in clubs in Memphis and Chicago, and eventually married. While playing in Chicago McCoy formed a series of blues bands, the first in 1936 called The Harlem Hamfats, which recorded quite a few albums for Decca Records. When the band broke up he formed Big Joe and His Washboard Band in 1940. This group also recorded several albums, for Okeh Records. He next formed Big Joe and His Bhythm Band, which recorded for Bluebird Records. The band disbanded in the mid-'40s. Joe McCoy died of heart failure in 1956 in Chicago.