The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and f… Read Full Bio ↴The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time.

The Mississippi Sheiks consisted mainly of the Chatmon family, who came from Bolton, Mississippi and were well known throughout the Mississippi Delta. The father of the family had been a "musicianer" (someone with good technical ability on his or her instrument adept at sight-reading written music) during slavery times, and his children carried on the musical spirit. Their most famous (although by no means permanent) member was Armenter Chatmon - better known as Bo Carter - who managed a successful solo career as well as playing with the Sheiks, which may have contributed to their success.
When the band first recorded in 1930, the line-up consisted of Carter with Lonnie and Sam Chatmon, and Walter Vinson. Charlie McCoy (not to be confused with Charlie McCoy, a later American musician) played later, when Bo Carter and Sam Chatmon ceased playing full time. It was Lonnie Chatmon and Vinson who formed the real center of the group.

Bo Carter's solo work is notable for being sexually suggestive in songs and this is carried on to an extent with the group. They primarily earned their income like Robert Johnson and Skip James. They toured throughout the Southern United States, but also reached as far north as Chicago and New York.
Their first and biggest success was "Sitting on Top of the World" (1930), later to be recorded by Bob Wills (numerous times), Howlin' Wolf, Nat King Cole, Bill Monroe, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Cream, Grateful Dead, Jeff Healey, John Lee Hooker, Bill Frisell and Jack White, and re-done by Robert Johnson, as "Come On in My Kitchen". The song was also the theme to the film A Face in the Crowd (1957) produced by Elia Kazan and starring Andy Griffith. Throughout their five active years, the Mississippi Sheiks recorded over seventy songs for the Okeh, Paramount and Bluebird labels.
Their last recording session as the Mississippi Sheiks was in 1936. Bo made a few more sessions on his own, but by 1938 he too was dropped. When the band dissolved, the Chatmon brothers gave up music and returned to farming.
The Sheiks and related groups under other names, such as Mississippi Mud Steppers and Blacksnakes, recorded about a hundred sides in the first half of the 1930s, among them original compositions (probably by Vinson) like "The World is Going Wrong" and "I've Got Blood in My Eyes For You" (1931) - both recorded by Bob Dylan - or the topical "Sales Tax" (1934).

Sam Chatmon made more recordings in the 1960s and Walter Vinson contributed three selections (using the Mississippi Sheiks band name) to Riverside's 1961 series, Chicago: The Living Legends.

In 2004, they were inducted in the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. Their 1930 blues single "Sitting on Top of the World" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

In 1978 Rory Gallagher recorded a tribute song "The Mississippi Sheiks" for his Photo Finish album.
In 2009, Black Hen Music released Things About Comin' My Way, a tribute album to the Mississippi Sheiks. The album's seventeen artists include Bruce Cockburn, Bill Frisell, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Geoff Muldaur, Kelly Joe Phelps and John Hammond.

In 2013 Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to reissue The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and The Mississippi Sheiks.

Lonely One In This Town
Mississippi Sheiks Lyrics

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I'm a lonely one in this town
Everybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely as I can be

I'm a lonely one in this town
Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely can't you see?

Because I'm a stranger here
Ev'rybody's turned his back on me
I believe I'll go right back
A Tenn old Tennessee

I'm the lonely one in this town
Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely as I can be

I'm a lonely one in this town
Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely as I can be

I'm a lonely one in this town
Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely can't you see?

Because I'm a stranger here
Ev'rybody's turned his back on me
I believe I'll go right back
A Tenn old Tennessee

I'm the lonely one in this town
Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely as I can be

You've got somebody, c'mon let's go!

I'm a lonely one in this town

Ev'rybody's tried to throw me down
I'm lonely as I can be.

Overall Meaning

The Mississippi Sheiks' song "Lonely One In This Town" is a lament sung by a man who feels out of place in the town he finds himself in. The lyrics paint a picture of a man who is isolated, shunned by the community and surrounded by people who seem to have it out for him. The opening line of the song says it all: "I'm a lonely one in this town." The man singing the song is looking for understanding and companionship but seems unable to find it in this particular place.

As the song progresses, we get a sense that the man is seen as an outsider simply because he is not from around there. He says, "Because I'm a stranger here, everybody's turned his back on me." This line carries with it a sense of longing to belong somewhere and a frustration with being rejected because he is different. He then expresses his desire to return to Tennessee, the place where he presumably feels at home.

The chorus repeats the opening line of the song, emphasizing the loneliness and isolation the man is feeling. The song ends with an invitation to "c'mon let's go!" which suggests that the man is looking for someone to join him on his journey back to Tennessee.

Overall, "Lonely One In This Town" is a powerful expression of the human need to belong and the pain of being rejected by a community. It speaks to anyone who has ever felt like they didn't fit in or were misunderstood.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm a lonely one in this town
I feel isolated and alone in this place

Everybody's tried to throw me down
People have attempted to harm and discourage me

I'm lonely as I can be
I am extremely lonely and feel disconnected

Because I'm a stranger here
People have rejected me because I am unfamiliar to them

Ev'rybody's turned his back on me
Everyone has abandoned and betrayed me

I believe I'll go right back
I am considering returning to where I came from

A Tenn old Tennessee
The place where I am from and feel accepted

You've got somebody, c'mon let's go!
This line is not related to the rest of the song and is likely a call to a specific person to leave

Contributed by Bella O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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