Biography
Born on 11 October 1900 in Nesbit, Mississippi, Joe Callicott remained in the region south of Memphis throughout his life until his death in 1969. His style showed clear connections to the playing of local contemporaries Jim Jackson and, more strongly, Frank Stokes, with whom he occasionally performed in Memphis. His closest partner remained Garfield Akers, however, and it was in that role as second guitarist that Callicott made his first recordings in 1929. The lone 78 he cut the next year paired the songster-derived “Fare Thee Well Blues” with “Travelling Mama Blues,” an assembly of then-current verses, both delivered in a high, forceful voice over steady rhythmic guitar work. After Akers’s death in 1959, Callicott largely set the instrument aside; though his pace had eased, the guitar rhythms stayed metronomic while his singing grew softer, bringing the overall texture closer to that of Frank Stokes without the melodic lines Stokes’s accompanists usually supplied on second guitar or violin. In the late 1960s he returned to the studio for a final series of sessions with blues documentarian George Mitchell. Callicott preferred long performances, yet his command of multiple keys and tunings prevented the steady pulse from becoming repetitive, resulting in a quietly hypnotic effect.