Biography
Little is known about blues songster Hambone Willie Newbern, whose recorded legacy amounts to just six sides. One of those tracks introduced the enduring Delta classic "Roll and Tumble Blues." Reportedly born in 1899, he first gained attention around Brownsville, TN, performing at country dances and fish fries alongside Yank Rachell. On the Mississippi medicine show circuit he later guided Sleepy John Estes, the main source of surviving details about Newbern’s life. During a 1929 stay in Atlanta he completed his only session, capturing not only the soon-standard "Roll and Tumble" but also numbers such as "She Could Toodle-Oo" and "Hambone Willie's Dreamy-Eyed Woman's Blues," both marked by an old-fashioned rag influence. Described by all accounts as an extremely ill-tempered man, Newbern’s conduct eventually landed him in prison, where a brutal beating reportedly ended his life around 1947.