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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Piney Woods Blues
Blues - Erschienen bei Ancien Prodige am 15.04.2024
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The Remasters (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Millennium Digital Remaster am 15.03.2020
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Mississippi Legend (Classic Mood Experience)
Blues - Erschienen bei Classic Mood Experience am 08.02.2014
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Nine String Guitar Blues (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Wild Cow Blues
Blues - Erschienen bei Milestones Records am 26.11.2018
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The George Mitchell Collection (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Baby Please Don't Go (Hq remastered)
Jazz - Erschienen bei Vintage Recordings am 04.08.2022
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Mississippi's Big Joe Williams and his Nine String Guitar
Blues - Erschienen bei Ancien Prodige am 16.11.2022
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Blues on Highway 49 (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 16.11.2022
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Tiajuana Blues / #13 Highway (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 14.03.2021
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Tough Times (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 16.11.2022
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Blues for 9 Strings (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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These Are My Blues (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Shake Your Boogie (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Big Joe Williams at Folk City (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Classic Delta Blues (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Piney Woods Blues (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 11.11.2022
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Mississippi's Big Joe Williams and His Nine-String Guitar (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 09.08.2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo