Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams may have been the most cantankerous human being who ever walked the earth with guitar in hand. At the same time, he was an incredible blues musician: a gifted songwriter, a powerhouse vocalist, and an exceptionally idiosyncratic guitarist. Despite his deserved reputation as a fighter (documented in Michael Bloomfield's bizarre booklet Me and Big Joe), artists who knew him well treated him as a respected elder statesman. Even so, they may not have chosen to play with him, because -- as with other older Delta artists -- if you played with him you played by his rules.
As protégé David "Honeyboy" Edwards described him, Williams in his early Delta days was a walking musician who played work camps, jukes, store porches, streets, and alleys from New Orleans to Chicago. He recorded through five decades for Vocalion, OKeh, Paramount, Bluebird, Prestige, Delmark, and many others. According to Charlie Musselwhite, he and Big Joe kicked off the blues revival in Chicago in the '60s.
When appearing at Mike Bloomfield's "blues night" at The Fickle Pickle, Williams played an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself. The total effect of this incredible apparatus produced the most buzzing, sizzling, African-sounding music one would likely ever hear.
Anyone who wants to learn Delta blues must one day come to grips with the idea that the guitar is a drum as well as a melody-producing instrument. A continuous, African-derived musical tradition emphasizing percussive techniques on stringed instruments from the banjo to the guitar can be heard in the music of Delta stalwarts Charley Patton, Fred McDowell, and Bukka White. Each employed decidedly percussive techniques, beating on his box, knocking on the neck, snapping the strings, or adding buzzing or sizzling effects to augment the instrument's percussive potential. However, Big Joe Williams, more than any other major recording artist, embodied the concept of guitar-as-drum, bashing out an incredible series of riffs on his G-tuned nine-string for over 60 years.
© Barry Lee Pearson /TiVo
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Baby Please Don't Go
Jazz - Erschienen bei Redwood Records am 12.03.2014
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Jazz Figures / Big Joe Williams (1935-1945)
Jazz - Erschienen bei Collector Records Greece am 10.11.2011
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An American Singer, Songwriter, Blues Master, Volume 5; The Complete Singles 1942-1960 (Remastered)
R&B - Erschienen bei PROFOUND am 30.06.2021
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City Bouncing Uptown
Jazz - Erschienen bei City Bouncing Uptown Muzik am 22.08.2021
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Buzzy Suite Masters
Jazz - Erschienen bei Buzzy Suite Masters Recordzzz am 22.08.2021
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Time Songs Imagination
Jazz - Erschienen bei Time Songs Imagination Music Rec am 23.04.2021
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The Very Best Of
Blues - Erschienen bei Stardust Records am 01.02.2009
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Deep in My Music
Jazz - Erschienen bei Deep In My Music Recordings TM am 23.07.2021
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An American Singer, Songwriter, Blues Master, Volume 3 (Remastered)
R&B - Erschienen bei PROFOUND am 30.06.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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An American Singer, Songwriter, Blues Master, Volume 2 (Remastered)
R&B - Erschienen bei PROFOUND am 30.06.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Masterpieces Maker
Jazz - Erschienen bei Great Masterpieces Maker Recordings Ltd am 26.03.2021
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Abc of the Blues Vol. 49
Johnny Guitar Watson, Big Joe Williams
Blues - Erschienen bei Documents am 24.09.2010
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Baby Please Don't Go
Blues - Erschienen bei Ap music am 10.10.2011
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Music On Air
Blues - Erschienen bei Underground Inside Records am 06.05.2016
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Me Myself and My Songs
Blues - Erschienen bei Underground Inside Records am 24.06.2016
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The One and Only: Big Joe Williams (Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Kateland am 25.02.2014
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Baby Please Don't Go
Jazz - Erschienen bei Dance Plant Records Inc am 09.07.2012
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Highlights of Big Joe Williams
Pop - Erschienen bei Weishaupt Music & Entertainment am 14.03.2017
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Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order Vol.1 (1935-1941)
Blues - Erschienen bei Resurfaced Records am 17.10.2017
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