Will Batts

Born January 24, 1904 in Michigan Mississippi,died on April 16, 1954. Fiddler Will Batts was the primary instrumentalist in Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band, a popular string band whose music owed a heavy debt to the blues as well as minstrel songs, vaudeville numbers, reels and rags. Batts was working as a farm hand when he decided to pursue a career in music full-time; he soon joined Kelly's band, a fixture of the Beale Street area, and in 1933 they made their first recordings, followed in 1939 by a second and final session.