Perhaps most associated with Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, of which he was a key member, Noah Lewis was also a talented harmonica player and singer in his own right. Born in Henning, Tennessee in 1895, he spent his formative years there before moving to Memphis as a teenager. He began by busking on street corners and in the bars, often alone but sometimes in the company of artists such as Hammie Nixon and Jab Jones. In this way he met up with Gus Cannon and became a member of the Jug Stompers. Lewis was with the band when it made made many recordings between 1927 and 1930. He also recorded in the 1930's with Jimmy "Yank" Rachell and "Sleepy" John Estes. However Lewis was one of many who suffered as country blues fell from favour, and also as the Depression swept across America. He disappeared from the scene, working as a labourer in Tennessee and living in dire poverty. He died in 1961 from gangrene resulting from frostbite.