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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Stavin' Chain Blues (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Nine String Blues
Blues - Erschienen bei Marmot Music am 19.07.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Highway 49
Blues - Erschienen bei Milestones Records am 26.11.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Magic Masterpieces
Blues - Erschienen bei What a Wonderful Masterpieces Recordings World am 22.07.2016
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The Magic Greatest Collection
Blues - Erschienen bei HCR Music am 15.07.2016
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Midnight Together
Blues - Erschienen bei What a Wonderful Masterpieces Recordings World am 17.06.2016
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The Great Masters
Blues - Erschienen bei What a Wonderful Masterpieces Recordings World am 27.05.2016
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Looking for the Gold Masterpieces (Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Almrec Muzik Remastered am 13.05.2016
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Blues from the South Side (Hd Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Reborn recordings am 04.07.2019
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Delta Blues Live (Live)
Vokalmusik (weltlich und geistlich) - Erschienen bei Marathon Media International am 25.03.2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues Left Texas / Walk On, Little Girl (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 25.07.2020
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Two Blues Icons
Big Joe Williams, Mississippi John Hurt
Blues - Erschienen bei Suburban Squire am 19.09.2014
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Someday, Baby / Highway 49 (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 27.07.2019
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At Folk City, Vol. 1 (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 26.06.2021
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Down In The Bottoms / 45 Blues (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 27.10.2020
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Delta Blues / Mink Coat Blues (All Tracks Remastered)
Blues - Erschienen bei Hit Singles Records am 02.09.2019
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Fantastic Music for Christmas (All the Greatest Tracks)
Blues - Erschienen bei Classic Mood Experience am 25.11.2016
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All the Fabulous Masters
Blues - Erschienen bei Almrec Muzik Remastered am 29.07.2016
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Absolute Hits
Blues - Erschienen bei Almrec Muzik Remastered am 01.07.2016
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Wonderful Soundtrack
Blues - Erschienen bei Almrec Muzik Remastered am 03.06.2016
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The Absolute Works
Blues - Erschienen bei HCR Music am 20.05.2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo