Joe Williams

The career of blues legend Big Joe Williams stretches back to the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s and continues up through the 1980s. The Sonet Blues Story captures Williams performing live in Sweden in 1972. Though not exactly in his prime, Williams plays with his usual boisterous spirit, reeling off classic acoustic Delta blues with a raw, propulsive edge. With only his stomping foot for rhythmic accompaniment, Williams and his guitar offer up a deep, riveting set. Informative liner notes by musical historian Samuel Charters round out the package.

Big Joe Williams - At Folk City
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 201 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Prestige Bluesville # OBC 580 | Country/Year: Europe 1995, 1962
Genre: Blues | Style: Delta Blues

…Williams left behind several folk club recordings from the early '60s, and they make a good contrast to the vast body of studio recordings from the same era. He was evidently at his best playing directly to an audience.

Joe Williams had been wanting to record an album of spirituals since 1957 and this is it. The veteran singer gives a blues feeling and swing to the traditional pieces which range from the rollicking title cut to "Go Down Moses," "I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" and "The Lord's Prayer." He is assisted by Marlena Shaw (a particularly effective partner on three of the numbers) and a five-piece chorus on four other songs. The backing usually features Patrice Rushen getting organ sounds out of her synthesizer. Despite the one-message content, the music has more variety than one might expect and Joe Williams acquits himself very well on this sincere and heartfelt effort.

Big Joe Williams was the epitome of the rambling, wandering itinerant bluesman so romanticised in the early days of blues discovery and record collecting. He rambled across the United States from coast to coast in the 1920s and '30s.

This unusual session appeared on LP in 1959, featuring Count Basie exclusively on organ accompanying Joe Williams' vocals over a dozen numbers, mostly standards. Although Basie's recordings on the instrument were sporadic, his style was not at all different from the one he utilized at the piano, filling in the holes and providing just enough backing for his very fine singer. Williams' vocals seem effortless throughout the date, though excessive reverb is frequently added. The unidentified rhythm section is anchored by longtime Basie guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Eddie Jones, and drummer Sonny Payne (who sticks mostly to brushes); what's rather unusual about the date is that Green actually takes several brief solos on his unamplified instrument…

Cut at Gerdes Folk City in New York on February 26, 1962, this record shows Big Joe Williams in top late-era form, enjoying himself before an audience of mostly white college kids and beats. He plays his signature nine-string guitar, accompanying himself on kazoo, which basically works (even subbing for what would have been a fuzz-tone guitar on "Bugle Blues"), although the kazoo was never meant to be captured in digital sound. The material includes Tommy McClennan's "Bottle Up and Go" and 11 traditional songs, including the intense "Trouble Take Me to My Grave" (his version of a song more familiar in Muddy Waters' version as "I Can't Be Satisfied"), "Mink Coat Blues," and "Burned Child Is Scared of Fire," all done in lively fashion with daunting finger-picking…