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Bolton in Hinds County, Mississippi — The American South (East South Central)
 

The Chatmon Family

Mississippi Sheiks

 
 
The Chatmon Family - Mississippi Sheiks Marker (Front) image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
1. The Chatmon Family - Mississippi Sheiks Marker (Front)
Inscription.
Front
The Henderson Chatmon family, which produced some of Mississippi's most important blues and string band musicians, lived near this site on Texas Street in 1900. Henderson's sons Armenter, better known as "Bo Carter" and Sam Chatmon recorded extensively as solo artists, and both also recorded with the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular group that featured their brother Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle. Various Chatmon ensembles entertained black and white audiences for several decades in Mississippi.

Rear
The Mississippi Sheiks were the country’s most prominent African American string band in the 1930s when they recorded the classics “Sitting on Top of the World,” “Stop and Listen Blues,” and “Winter Time Blues.” At dances the Sheiks featured various members of the prolific Chatmon family and friends from Bolton, Raymond, and Edwards, but in the recording studio the unit was most often a duo–violinist Lonnie Chatmon and singer-guitarist Walter Vinson–sometimes joined by guitarist Bo Chatmon, who recorded over 100 songs under the name Bo Carter, Sam Chatmon, or Charlie McCoy. The Chatmons played at dances in central Mississippi and the Delta, usually splitting into smaller groups to make the pay go farther. On record they were best known for blues, but
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they also played waltzes, reels, Tin Pan Alley songs, ballads, and minstrel show tunes to cater to both their white and black audiences. Muddy Waters, who then played in a similar string band, said he “walked ten miles to hear them play.”

Henderson Chatmon (born c. 1850), a fiddler, rented land from Gaddis & McLaurin Farms and raised crops with his sons at various locations south and west of Bolton. They once had a residence in town; in the 1900 census the household was enumerated here, in between those of George C. McLaurin and Thomas Lacy. His wife Eliza and children Fred, Josie, Alonzo (“Lonnie”), Armenter (“Bo”), Edgar, Willie (“Crook”), Lamar (“Bert”), Vivian (who chose to be called Sam), Larry (“Poochie”), and Harry (“Tie”), all born between c. 1885 and 1904, played multiple instruments, including guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin, bass, and piano. Ferdinand (“Bud”), a son from Henderson's first marriage, Walter Vinson, Charlie and Joe McCoy, and Charley Patton, said by Sam to be a son of Henderson, also played with the Chatmons at times. Crystal Springs bluesman Houston Stackhouse sometimes played with Lonnie and with a group called the Mississippi Sheiks No. 2.

The Sheiks recorded from 1930 to 1935, until their string band blues faded from fashion with record
The Chatmon Family - Mississippi Sheiks Marker (Rear) image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
2. The Chatmon Family - Mississippi Sheiks Marker (Rear)
buyers. Bo Carter, who recorded “Corrine Corrina” and specialized in bawdy blues, continued to record until 1940 after moving to Anguilla. He and several Chatmons also lived at times in Coahoma County and in Jackson, where Harry remained, playing piano around the city and “’cross the river” in Rankin County. In 1936 Lonnie opened a cafe in Glen Allan, while Sam worked as a farmer and night watchman in Hollandale before embarking on a new recording and touring career during the folk blues revival of the 1960s. In 1972 he and Vinson reunited to record as the New Mississippi Sheiks. As the other Chatmon brothers passed on or retired from performing, only Sam was left to carry on the family’s fabled musical tradition until his death in 1983.
 
Erected 2014 by the Mississippi Blues Commission. (Marker Number 176.)
 
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African AmericansArts, Letters, MusicEntertainment. In addition, it is included in the Mississippi Blues Trail series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1900.
 
Location. 32° 21.22′ N, 90° 27.568′ W. Marker is in Bolton, Mississippi, in Hinds County. Marker is on Texas Street, 0.1 miles east of Church Street, on the right. Touch for map. Marker
Photos from rear of marker. image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
3. Photos from rear of marker.
Click on photo for closeup
is at or near this postal address: 204 Texas Street, Bolton MS 39041, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 5 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Champion's Hill (approx. 0.3 miles away); Charley Patton Birthplace (approx. 3.6 miles away); Champion House Site (approx. 3.7 miles away); The Hill of Death (approx. 4.1 miles away); Site of the 3rd Battery, Ohio Light Artillery (approx. 4.2 miles away); Bowen's Counterattack (approx. 4½ miles away); Champion Hill Battlefield (approx. 4½ miles away); The Battle of Champion Hill (approx. 4½ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Bolton.
 
Regarding The Chatmon Family. See also the Sam Chatmon MS Blues Trail marker in Hollandale, Mississippi.
 
Also see . . .
1. The Mississippi Sheiks. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on November 2, 2015, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.) 

2. Sam Chatmon. Mississippi Writers and Musicians website entry (Submitted on November 2, 2015, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.) 
 
Former location of Chatmon Family homesite. image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
4. Former location of Chatmon Family homesite.
Marker view east on Texas Street image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
5. Marker view east on Texas Street
The view west on Texas Street towards Bolton-Brownsville Road image. Click for full size.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, October 16, 2015
6. The view west on Texas Street towards Bolton-Brownsville Road
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on May 14, 2022. It was originally submitted on November 2, 2015, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 653 times since then and 26 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on November 2, 2015, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.

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Mar. 28, 2024