Peg Leg Sam

Peg Leg Sam: Kickin' It

by Ed Kopp
December 1, 2000

The late Peidmont blues harpist Peg Leg Sam (real name Arthur Jackson) was a true ramblin' bluesman who lost his right leg in 1930 when he tried to hop a freight train in North Carolina. When he wasn't riding the rails, the South Carolinian worked as an entertainer with a medicine show run by “Chief Thundercloud," a Potawotomi Indian. This show continued its run until the chief's death in the early 1970s. It was around this time that Sam recorded ...