What broke up the MJB was the depression and the change in preferred musical styles. Record sales dropped, and most of the companies went out of business or reorganized severely, in the 1930-32 period. The MJB made good money (Will Shade bought a house and invested in Victor stock, only to lose the house and sell the stock at pennies on the dollar), but the swingier hokum music replaced the sometimes raggedy jug band sound. Same thing happened in hillbilly, with the elements of what became western swing pushing the oldtime breakdown bands out of the picture. The MJB had its last session for ARC in 1934, and it was a good session, but it just didn't catch on with a public that had limited amounts of $ to spend on entertainment.

Shade and Burse continued to play around -- small gigs and busking -- into the 50s, but they couldn't make a living just playing music any more. (Victor paid Will Shade $25 a week for several years as advances and as manager of the MJB, and that was good money for the place and time, hence the house and Victor stock that he bought, but he lost it all in the depression and went to a life of odd jobs, drinking, and poverty. Burse had a day job as a painter and even got back into the studio in the very late 30s, with a swing-oriented group, but the records weren't successful. Shade wasn't with him on this session.)

Undoubtedly there is something more contemporary about the band, but some of the most insightful and interesting info will be found in Samuel Charters' "The Country Blues" (1959), based on interviews with Shade, Burse, and Gus Cannon in the middle 1950s. A lot of writers have covered the same ground since, but Charters was the first. You can hear the music of the three from 1956 on the Folkways LP "American Skiffle Bands," and there are some good 60s tracks of Shade and Burse on a Rounder vinyl, "Beale Street Mess Around," which really should be reissued.