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American musical group
The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid 1920s to the late 1950s. The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band. Beginning in 1926, African American musicians in the Memphis area grouped around the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player Will Shade (also known as Son Brimmer or Sun Brimmer). The personnel of the band varied from day to day, with Shade booking gigs and arranging recording sessions.

Among the recorded members of the Memphis Jug Band at various times were Will Shade (harmonica, guitar, washtub bass, vocals), Charlie Burse (guitar, tenor guitar, vocals), Charlie Nickerson (vocals, piano), Charlie Pierce (fiddle), Charlie Polk (jug), Tewee Blackman (guitar, vocals), Hambone Lewis (jug), Jab Jones (piano, jug, vocals), Johnny Hodges (Johnny Hardge) (piano), Ben Ramey (kazoo, vocals), Will Weldon (guitar, vocals), Memphis Minnie (guitar, vocals), Vol Stevens (vocals, fiddle, mandolin), Milton Robie (fiddle), Otto Gilmore (Otto Gilmer) (drums and woodblocks), and Robert Burse (washboard, drums). Vocals were provided by Hattie Hart, Memphis Minnie, Jennie Mae Clayton (Shade's wife), and Minnie Wallace. The Memphis Jug Band accompanied Memphis Minnie on two sides for Victor Records in 1930, one of her first recording sessions. Some members also contributed to gospel recordings, either uncredited or as part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers. The large membership pool gave the Memphis Jug Band the flexibility to play a mixture of ballads, dance tunes, knock about novelty numbers, and blues.

The remarkable sound of the Memphis Jug Band was partly due to its unusual instruments. The first recorded jug bands, based in Louisville, Kentucky, were jazz oriented groups with a jug taking the place of a tuba or trombone. The Memphis Jug Band borrowed from this model but added kazoo as a prominent lead instrument, similar in sound to a trumpet in a jazz band. in 1958.) This is the basic jug band sound that was adopted by other Memphis area groups, like Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band and Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band. The band initially played mostly country blues, but its repertoire expanded as new members contributed their own styles. Songs led by Charlie "Bozo" Nickerson, such as "Everybody's Talking About Sadie Green" and "Cave Man Blues", were boisterous and funny; songs led by Charlie Burse, such as "Little Green Slippers" and "Insane Crazy Blues", were more musically complex and jazz oriented; songs led by Charlie Pierce sounded like Appalachian fiddle tunes, backed by impressive jug playing and shouted challenges from his bandmates. The band was a favorite of former mayor Edward Hull "Boss" Crump and was shown performing at one of Crump's parties in a Life magazine photo feature in 1941.

Between 1927 and 1934, the Memphis Jug Band made more than eighty commercial recordings, first for Victor Records, then (as the Picaninny Jug Band) for the Champion Gennett label, and finally for OKeh Records. By that time, their style of music was no longer in demand by record companies, as commercial styles were moving toward a more urban sound. It was reissued in 1991 on CD with a reduced and reprogrammed 23 track listing.

The Memphis Jug Band was key in developing the jug band format, which evolved into the blues combo that is the basis of much popular music today. Their legacy, like that of other acoustic blues musicians of their era, has been overshadowed by the electric blues of the 1950s. Modern jug bands still play many Memphis Jug Band songs, but generally the only songs recognizable to a wider audience are those that were covered by rock groups in the 1960s. The Memphis Jug Band was awarded a Brass Note on the Beale Street "Walk of Fame" in 2009. It was among the first group of inductees into the Jug Band Hall of Fame, an informal website run by jug band musicians, in 2010.