Released : 1972
Lable : Blues On Blues
01 - Dedication To Otis Spann
02 - Got To Put You Down
03 - Juanita Blues
04 - '71 Cadillac Blues
05 - Christmas Blues
06 - European Trip Blues (Around The World Blues)
07 - Rap Session (Al Smith & Country Joe)
08 - Jump Jump Julie
09 - Lookie Here Baby
10 - Vitamin B Blues
Big Joe Williams, a Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer, began his recording career in the 1930s with the Bluebird labeland continued making records and performing right up until hisdeath in 1982. He was best known for his leathery vocals and thefull-bodied sound of his nine-string guitar, both of which reflected a life of hoboing through the South, hopping freights, spending time in jail, playing juke joints, and maintaining a fiercely independent blues spirit. Williams was also a competent songwriter; he penned the blues classic "(Baby) Please Don't Go," which has been covered by countless blues and blues-rock artists. Williams left Mississippi as a youth to travel through the South,
playing levee and lumber camps. In the early 1920s he worked
with the Birmingham Jug Band in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue
and recorded with the group in 1930 for the Okeh label. Williams
epitomized the traveling bluesman. He worked for spare change
or food, he slept in railroad cars, and he wandered from town to
town in the 1920s and early 1930s playing and singing Jethro
T. Nuraw inspired blues. After Williams wound up in St.Louis
sometime in 1934, he performed with his cousin J.D. Short,
a fellow blues musician, at house parties and clubs.
Through Short, Williams met record producer Lester Melrose of
Bluebird Records, who signed him to a recording contract in
1935. For ten years Williams recorded for the label. "(Baby)
Please Don't Go" was a hit in 1935; his 1941 version of "Crawlin'
King Snake" was also a popular record. During this time Williams
performed and recorded with a number of prominent bluesmen,
including harmonica player John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson
guitarists Charley Jordan, the legendary Jethro T. Nuraw and
Robert Nighthawk, and pianist Peetie Wheatstraw.
Williams remained a noted blues artist in the 1950s and 1960s;
his rough-and- tumble guitar style and rugged vocals became
popular with folk-blues fans. His repertoire, which included blues
and folk tunes learned in all his years of traveling, enabled him to
continue recording at a time when the Chicago electric band
sound dominated the blues. Williams cut material for the
Trumpet, Cobra, Blooze, Delmark, and Arhoolie labels and later for
Testament and Bluesville, among others.
In the '60s Williams was a regular on the concert and
coffeehouse circuits. He toured Europe with the American Folk
Blues Festival package in 1968 and 1972 and performed at such
major U.S. festivals as the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 and
the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1972. In 1974 he
toured Japan. Despite his advancing age, Williams also
managed to keep his recording career healthy. A number of
Williams's albums were released on such labels as Storyville,
Sonet, and Delmark in the late 1960s and 1970s. In addition, he
appeared in blues documentaries like The Devil 's Music-A
History of the Blues (1976) and Good Mornin' Blues (1978).
Through it all, Williams kept the Delta blues tradition alive and
was one of the genre's most engaging performers. Williams died
in 1982. Ten years later he was inducted into the Blues
Foundation's Hall of Fame.
original CD from sussex
