Jack Owens

Bentonia, a small community of fewer than four hundred residents situated off Highway 49, some eleven miles south of Yazoo City, is known to blues fanatics and to the wider world as the birthplace of a unique, plaintive blues form known as the Bentonia school—a style noted for its hallmark falsettos and “crossnote” minor guitar tuning.

One notable blues performer associated with the Bentonia style was Jack Owens. Born L. F. Nelson on 17 November 1904 to George Nelson and Celia Owens in Bentonia, the soon-to-be Jack Owens began playing guitar at an early age. Learning from his uncle and other relatives, Owens quickly became adept at the guitar. Eventually coming under the influence of Henry Stuckey, another local guitarist, Owens began playing and pioneering the blues style synonymous with his home.

To supplement his income as a farmer and to pursue his passion for music, Owens turned his home on Rose Hill Road into a weekend juke joint. As he and his wife, Mabel, prepared for the weekend—cooking meals and making drinks—a large jukebox played in the central room. But once everyone arrived, the jukebox would be unplugged and the blues would begin. Armed with his guitar and often joined by local harmonica player Benjamin “Bud” Spires, Owens provided music for the party, stomping his boots on the front porch and letting the good times roll. He performed for the Black community his entire life, even after closing his juke joint.

Jack Owens’s first recordings were initially released on the Up the Country LP by Decca Records in 1967. His recordings later appeared on Testament Records in 1971 as It Must Have Been the Devil, perhaps his signature and most powerful album. He later appeared on albums such as Bentonia Country Blues; 50 Years: Mississippi Blues in Bentonia, 1931–1981: Skip James and Jack Owens; Jack Owens & Eugene Powell: The Last Giants of Mississippi Blues; and Jack Owens Blues at Home 8. Recordings made at his home have also appeared regularly on various field-recording and blues compilations, such as the Giants of the Country Blues series. Jack Owens reached the broader world through appearances in two documentaries: the 1978 Alan Lomax release The Land Where Blues Began and 1991’s Deep Blues, produced by Robert Mugge.

Despite this attention, Owens rarely left Bentonia, allowing fans to track him down. He occasionally performed at festivals in Mississippi, such as the Sunflower River Blues Festival, and in cities including St. Louis, Atlanta, New York, and even once in Europe. Still, his influence loomed large, culminating in his receipt of the 1993 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.

Back home in Bentonia, Owens became a more visible presence at the Blue Front Cafe, especially after the passing of Mabel. There, he taught the young proprietor, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, recognizing his own mortality and the need for the tradition to be passed down. Often saying, “Just watch my hands,” Owens could not read music, let alone articulate the various notes and chords associated with the Bentonia school. But he knew how to play it and how to communicate feeling in an earth-shattering falsetto.

Owens died on 9 February 1997. He is buried in Day Cemetery in nearby Scotland, next to his wife and business partner, Mabel.