ERNEST LAWLARS a.k.a.LITTLE SON JOE

From left: Ernest 'Little Son Joe' Lawlars, Big Bill Broonzy, Lester Melrose, Roosevelt Sykes, St. Louis Jimmy Oden. Front: Washboard Sam.

Ernest Lawlars 18 de mayo de 1900, Hughes, Arkansas, EE.UU., d. 14 de noviembre 1961, Memphis, Tennessee, EE.UU.. Lawlars es seguramente más conocido por su asociación musical con su esposa, Memphis Minnie, aunque habían estado tocando la guitarra y cantando el blues hacía ya  algunos años alrededor de Memphis antes de colaborar , incluido un período con King Robert Wilkins, a quien acompañó en la grabación de  1935. se asoció con Minnie a finales de los años 30, en sustitución de su marido y su pareja anterior, Joe McCoy. Como McCoy, Lawlars también hicieron registros bajo su propio nombre, incluyendo el conocido 'Black Rat Swing ', pero él apareció principalmente en el papel de apoyo, en un gran número de actuaciones que cubren la mayor parte de los años 40 y los primeros años de la siguiente década. A medida que su popularidad en Chicago se desvaneció, se instalaron de nuevo en Memphis y se retiró de la música en los años 50.

                       

                         

Composed by Ernest Lawlars

Little Son Joe (Ernest Lawlars):Vocals & Guitar

Memphis Minnie:Guitar

Alfred Elkins:Imitation Stand-Up Bass

Recorded in Chicago, IL. Friday, December 12, 1941

Originally issued on and this recording taken from the 1982 2-album set "OKeh Chicago Blues" (Epic EG 37318) (LP)

                         

Ernest Lawlars (May 18, 1900 – November 14, 1961) was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and composer, known professionally as Little Son Joe.

Lawlars (sometimes spelled "Lawlers" or "Lawlar") was born in Hughes, Arkansas, United States. From around 1931 to 1936 he worked around Memphis with Robert Wilkins, who he accompanied on a recording session in 1935. The same session also produced Lawlers's first recorded side, under the name Son Joe, although this was not issued.

By 1939, he was working with, and married to, Memphis Minnie. Their first recording session together, for Vocalion in February 1939, produced six released sides by Lawlers as well as four under Minnie's name. Lawlars recorded in his own right under the name Little Son Joe, but most of his recorded work was as an accompanist to Minnie. In 1942, and billed as Little Son Joe, he had a hit with "Black Rat Swing". He mostly retired from music from around 1957 because of ill-health, although after moving to Memphis in 1958 he and Minnie had a regular Saturday night gig at the Red Light in Millington, Tennessee, and he played drums on Minnie's final recording session in 1959.

He died in John Gaston Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, in November 1961 from heart disease, and was buried in the New Hope Cemetery in Walls, Mississippi.