SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2016
VOLUME THREE NUMBER ONE
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JULIUS HEMPHILL
June 18-24
ARTHUR BLYTHE
June 25-July 1
OSCAR BROWN, JR.
July 2-July 8
DONNY HATHAWAY
July 9-July 15
EUGENE McDANIELS
July 16-July 22
ROBERTA FLACK
July 23-July 29
WOODY SHAW
July 30-August 5
FATS DOMINO
August 6-August 12
CLIFFORD BROWN
August 13-August 19
BLIND WILLIE McTELL
August 20-August 26
RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK
August 27-September 2
CHARLES BROWN
September 3-September 9
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/blind-willie-mctell-mn0000048331/biography
Blind Willie McTell
(1898-1959)
Artist Biography by Bruce Eder
Willie Samuel McTell
was one of the blues' greatest guitarists, and also one of the finest
singers ever to work in blues. A major figure with a local following in
Atlanta from the 1920s onward, he recorded dozens of sides throughout
the '30s under a multitude of names -- all the better to juggle
"exclusive" relationships with many different record labels at once --
including Blind Willie, Blind Sammie, Hot Shot Willie, and Georgia Bill, as a backup musician to Ruth Mary Willis. And those may not have been all of his pseudonyms -- we don't even know what he chose to call himself, although "Blind Willie"
was his preferred choice among friends. Much of what we do know about
him was learned only years after his death, from family members and
acquaintances. His family name was, so far as we know, McTier or McTear,
and the origins of the "McTell" name are unclear. What is clear is that
he was born into a family filled with musicians -- his mother and his
father both played guitar, as did one of his uncles, and he was also
related to Georgia Tom Dorsey, who later became the Rev. Thomas Dorsey.
McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia, near Augusta, and raised near Statesboro. He was probably born blind, although early in his life he could perceive light in one eye. His blindness never became a major impediment, however, and it was said that his sense of hearing and touch were extraordinary. His first instruments were the harmonica and the accordion, but as soon as he was big enough he took up the guitar and showed immediate aptitude on the new instrument. He played a standard six-string acoustic until the mid-'20s, and never entirely abandoned the instrument, but from the beginning of his recording career, he used a 12-string acoustic in the studio almost exclusively.
McTell's technique on the 12-string instrument was unique. Unlike virtually every other bluesman who used one, he relied not on its resonances as a rhythm instrument, but, instead, displayed a nimble, elegant slide and finger-picking style that made it sound like more than one guitar at any given moment. He studied at a number of schools for the blind, in Georgia, New York, and Michigan, during the early '20s, and probably picked up some formal musical knowledge. He worked medicine shows, carnivals, and other outdoor venues, and was a popular attraction, owing to his sheer dexterity and a nasal singing voice that could sound either pleasant or mournful, and incorporated some of the characteristics normally associated with white hillbilly singers.
McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia, near Augusta, and raised near Statesboro. He was probably born blind, although early in his life he could perceive light in one eye. His blindness never became a major impediment, however, and it was said that his sense of hearing and touch were extraordinary. His first instruments were the harmonica and the accordion, but as soon as he was big enough he took up the guitar and showed immediate aptitude on the new instrument. He played a standard six-string acoustic until the mid-'20s, and never entirely abandoned the instrument, but from the beginning of his recording career, he used a 12-string acoustic in the studio almost exclusively.
McTell's technique on the 12-string instrument was unique. Unlike virtually every other bluesman who used one, he relied not on its resonances as a rhythm instrument, but, instead, displayed a nimble, elegant slide and finger-picking style that made it sound like more than one guitar at any given moment. He studied at a number of schools for the blind, in Georgia, New York, and Michigan, during the early '20s, and probably picked up some formal musical knowledge. He worked medicine shows, carnivals, and other outdoor venues, and was a popular attraction, owing to his sheer dexterity and a nasal singing voice that could sound either pleasant or mournful, and incorporated some of the characteristics normally associated with white hillbilly singers.
McTell's recording career began in late 1927 with two sessions for Victor records, eight sides including "Statesboro Blues." McTell's earliest sides were superb examples of storytelling in music, coupled with dazzling guitar work. All of McTell's music showed extraordinary power, some of it delightfully raucous ragtime, other examples evoking darker, lonelier sides of the blues, and all of it displaying astonishingly rich guitar work.
McTell worked under a variety of names, and with a multitude of partners, including his one-time wife Ruthy Kate Williams (who recorded with him under the name Ruby Glaze), and also Buddy Moss and Curley Weaver. McTell cut some of his best songs more than once in his career. Like many bluesmen, he recorded under different names simultaneously, and was even signed to Columbia and Okeh Records, two companies that ended up merged at the end of the '30s, at the same time, under two names. His recording career never gave McTell quite as much success as he had hoped, partly due to the fact that some of his best work appeared during the depths of the Depression. He was uniquely popular in Atlanta, where he continued to live and work throughout most of his career, and, in fact, was the only blues guitarist of any note from the city to remain active in the city until well after World War II.
McTell was well-known enough that Library of Congress archivist John Lomax felt compelled to record him in 1940, although during the war, like many other acoustic country bluesmen, his recording career came to a halt. Luckily for McTell and generations of listeners after him, however, there was a brief revival of interest in acoustic country-blues after World War II that brought him back into the studio. Amazingly enough, the newly founded Atlantic Records -- which was more noted for its recordings of jazz and R&B -- took an interest in McTell and cut 15 songs with him in Atlanta during 1949. The one single released from these sessions, however, didn't sell, and most of those recordings remained unheard for more than 20 years after they were made. A year later, however, he was back in the studio, this time with his longtime partner Curley Weaver, cutting songs for the Regal label. None of these records sold especially well, however, and while McTell kept playing for anyone who would listen, the bitter realities of life had finally overtaken him, and he began drinking on a regular basis. He was rediscovered in 1956, just in time to get one more historic session down on tape. He left music soon after, to become a pastor of a local church, and he died of a brain hemorrhage in 1959, his passing so unnoticed at the time that certain reissues in the '70s referred to McTell as still being alive in the '60s.
Blind Willie McTell was one of the giants of the blues, as a guitarist and as a singer and recording artist. Hardly any of his work as passed down to us on record is less than first-rate, and this makes most any collection of his music worthwhile. A studious and highly skilled musician whose skills transcended the blues, he was equally adept at ragtime, spirituals, story-songs, hillbilly numbers, and popular tunes, excelling in all of these genres. He could read and write music in braille, which gave him an edge on many of his sighted contemporaries, and was also a brilliant improvisor on the guitar, as is evident from his records. McTell always gave an excellent account of himself, even in his final years of performing and recording.
Blind Willie McTell
1898-1959
Blind Willie McTell was one of the great blues musicians of the 1920s
and 1930s. Displaying an extraordinary range on the twelve-string
guitar, this Atlanta-based musician recorded more than 120 titles during
fourteen recording sessions. His voice was soft and expressive, and his
musical tastes were influenced by southern blues, ragtime, gospel,
hillbilly, and popular music.
At a time when most blues musicians were poorly educated and rarely traveled, McTell was an exception. He could read and write music in Braille. He traveled often from Atlanta to New York City, frequently alone. As a person faced with a physical disability and social inequities, he expressed in his music a strong confidence in dealing with the everyday world.
McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia on May 5, 1898. Few facts are known about his early life. Even his name is uncertain: his family name was either McTear or McTier, and his first name may have been Willie, Samuel, or Eddie. His tombstone reads “Eddie McTier.” He was blind either from birth or from early childhood, and he attended schools for the blind in Georgia, New York, and Michigan.
McTell learned to play the guitar in his teens from his mother, relatives, and neighbors in Statesboro, where his family had moved. In his teenage years, after his mother's death, he left home and toured in carnivals and medicine shows. In the 1920s and 1930s, McTell traveled a circuit between Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and Macon. This region encompasses two major blues styles: Eastern Seaboard/Piedmont, with lighter, bouncier rhythms and a ragtime influence; and Deep South, with its greater emphasis on intense rhythms and short, repeated music phrases.
McTell also journeyed from Georgia to New York City. Along the way he entertained wherever he could find an audience: passenger train cars, hotel lobbies, college fraternity parties, school assemblies, proms, vaudeville theaters, and churches. As he followed the tobacco market from Georgia into North Carolina, he played for farmers, buyers, and merchants at warehouses, auctions, livery stables, and hotels.
By the mid-1920s McTell was already an accomplished musician in Atlanta, playing at house parties and fish fries. He had also traded in the standard six-string acoustic guitar for a twelve-string guitar, which was popular among Atlanta musicians because of the extra volume it provided for playing on city streets.
By 1926 record companies had begun to take an interest in recording folk blues artists, mostly men playing solo with guitars”Blind Lemon Jefferson from Texas, Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson from Mississippi, Peg Leg Howell and Blind Willie McTell from Georgia. Beginning with his first recording in 1927 for Victor Records and his 1928 recording session for Columbia, McTell produced such blues classics as “Statesboro Blues” (later made famous by the Allman Brothers Band and Taj Mahal), “Mama 'Tain't Long 'for' Day,” and “Georgia Rag.” In 1929 he recorded “Broke Down Engine Blues.”
At a time when most blues musicians were poorly educated and rarely traveled, McTell was an exception. He could read and write music in Braille. He traveled often from Atlanta to New York City, frequently alone. As a person faced with a physical disability and social inequities, he expressed in his music a strong confidence in dealing with the everyday world.
McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia on May 5, 1898. Few facts are known about his early life. Even his name is uncertain: his family name was either McTear or McTier, and his first name may have been Willie, Samuel, or Eddie. His tombstone reads “Eddie McTier.” He was blind either from birth or from early childhood, and he attended schools for the blind in Georgia, New York, and Michigan.
McTell learned to play the guitar in his teens from his mother, relatives, and neighbors in Statesboro, where his family had moved. In his teenage years, after his mother's death, he left home and toured in carnivals and medicine shows. In the 1920s and 1930s, McTell traveled a circuit between Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and Macon. This region encompasses two major blues styles: Eastern Seaboard/Piedmont, with lighter, bouncier rhythms and a ragtime influence; and Deep South, with its greater emphasis on intense rhythms and short, repeated music phrases.
McTell also journeyed from Georgia to New York City. Along the way he entertained wherever he could find an audience: passenger train cars, hotel lobbies, college fraternity parties, school assemblies, proms, vaudeville theaters, and churches. As he followed the tobacco market from Georgia into North Carolina, he played for farmers, buyers, and merchants at warehouses, auctions, livery stables, and hotels.
By the mid-1920s McTell was already an accomplished musician in Atlanta, playing at house parties and fish fries. He had also traded in the standard six-string acoustic guitar for a twelve-string guitar, which was popular among Atlanta musicians because of the extra volume it provided for playing on city streets.
By 1926 record companies had begun to take an interest in recording folk blues artists, mostly men playing solo with guitars”Blind Lemon Jefferson from Texas, Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson from Mississippi, Peg Leg Howell and Blind Willie McTell from Georgia. Beginning with his first recording in 1927 for Victor Records and his 1928 recording session for Columbia, McTell produced such blues classics as “Statesboro Blues” (later made famous by the Allman Brothers Band and Taj Mahal), “Mama 'Tain't Long 'for' Day,” and “Georgia Rag.” In 1929 he recorded “Broke Down Engine Blues.”
Like other musicians at the time, he recorded on different labels under various nicknames to skirt contractual agreements. Thus he was Blind Willie for Vocalion, Georgia Bill for OKeh, Red Hot Willie Glaze for Bluebird, Blind Sammie for Columbia, Barrel House Sammy for Atlantic, and Pig 'n' Whistle Red for Regal Records. The latter name came from a popular drive-in barbecue restaurant in Atlanta where he played for tips.In the early 1930s McTell frequently played with Blind Lemon Jefferson throughout the South. He married Ruth Kate Williams, with whom he recorded some duets, in 1934.
In 1940 folk-song collector John Lomax recorded the versatile musician for the Archive of Folk Culture of the Library of Congress. These sessions, which have been issued in full, feature interviews as well as a variety of music.
McTell was the only bluesman to remain active in Atlanta until well after World War II (1941-45). With his longtime associate Curley Weaver, he played for tips on Atlanta's Decatur Street, a popular hangout for local blues musicians. His last recording was made in 1956 for an Atlanta record-store owner and released on the Prestige/Bluesville label. Afterward he played exclusively religious music. From 1957 to his death he was active as a preacher at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Atlanta. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage on August 19, 1959, at the Milledgeville State Hospital.
In 1981 Blind Willie McTell was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame. Two years later, folksinger Bob Dylan paid homage to McTell in his song “Blind Willie McTell”: “And I know no one can sing the blues / Like Blind Willie McTell.” In 1990 McTell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Each year, the city of Thomson hosts the Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival in honor of their hometown legend.
http://www.peterguralnick.com/post/35606359107/blindwilliemctell
"But nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell" --Bob Dylan
BLIND WILLIE McTELL
Dapper, articulate, sophisticated in his presentation of material ranging from blues to ragtime to spirituals to a breezy form of recitatif that could pass for the rap of its day, Blind Willie McTell would be the stuff of legend even if his own improbable tale of artistic and commercial survival did not warrant a romantic myth of its own.
I first encountered his music among the very earliest of my blues discoveries around
1959, at age fifteen, thanks entirely to the great good taste of
writer/producer/ethnomusicologist Sam Charters, who included McTell’s
1928 masterpiece, “Statesboro Blues,” on the Folkways/RBF anthology, The Country Blues, which accompanied the book he had just written of the same name.
“Statesboro Blues” was recorded at McTell’s second recording session for the Victor Recording Company, in October of 1928.
He returned to the studio on October 30 the following year for a new
label, with a brisk new ragtime focus, and with a new name as well,
Blind Sammie, intended among other things to hide his recording
activities from his previous label. This session came one week to the
day after the first of the seismic shifts that marked the beginning of
the Great Depression, and for many of the downhome blues singers who had
benefited from the broad-based prosperity that fueled the blues craze
of the 1920s, it marked the end of any commercial recording career.
Blind Willie McTell, however, continued to record for the next quarter
of a century, cutting records as Georgia Bill, Barrelhouse Sammy (The
Country Boy), and Hot Shot Willie, among others. In 1940 he recorded a
tantalizing session for the Library of Congress, that came about only
because folklorist John Lomax’s wife spotted “a Negro man with a guitar”
at a Pig ‘n’ Whistle stand (another of Blind Willie’s latter-day
sobriquets was Pig ‘n’ Whistle Red) and Blind Willie agreed to record
some numbers, since business at the drive-in stand was slow that night.
The result was a mélange of folk songs, rags, spirituals, pop, and
pre-blues material, interspersed with monologues revealing not just a
photographic memory but an analytic approach to the “history of the
blues, life as a maker of records,” his own extensive education in blind
schools in Georgia and Michigan, and exactly where and for whom (and
under what names) he had previously recorded.
By the time this session was finally released on
LP,it had been firmly established that Blind Willie McTell was dead. In
fact he had died at almost the same time that Sam Charters’ book and
record, The Country Blues, were released. For my friend and me,
who had discovered the blues initially through Charters’ work, mundane
reality was not so easy to accept, particularly in the face of Blind
Willie’s persistent refusal to disappear. Indeed his voice had surfaced
once again just as his death became widely known, with a 1961 album,
understandably entitled Last Session, recorded five years
earlier for an Atlanta record collector. The record was not without its
disappointments, revealing some degree of deterioration due to age and
drink, but it included characteristic moments of brashness and beauty
delivered with all of McTell’s familiar insouciance and wit. Since then,
nothing – at least nothing bearing any resemblance to resurrection – so
that might very well be the end of the story. But then again, who
knows? Blind Willie McTell may yet reemerge, exhibiting that same
winning combination of invention and self-delight, that same ability to
put across the deepest of blues, the wittiest of social satires, with an
enthusiasm that can transport the listener, like the best of Charles
Dickens, like all great art, to a world of the artist’s own creation.
Blind Willie McTell
The citizens of Thomson, Georgia, maintain an unusually acute
awareness of Blues music and its legacy. As home to influential Bluesman
Blind Willie McTell, Thomson celebrates its association with one of
America’s most influential musicians annually at the Blind Willie McTell
Blues Festival, promoted by the Activities Council of Thomson (ACT).
Born William Samuel McTell in 1901, Blind Willie lost his sight in
late childhood, yet earned the status as one of the most accomplished
guitarists and lyrical storytellers in Blues history.
Blind Willie became an accomplished musical theorist, able to both read and write music in Braille, through an encouraging family and strong faith.
While few of his recordings ever earned mainstream popularity, his influence on the modern music and art scene is widely known. His songs (Statesboro Blues, Broke Down Engine Blues, etc…) have been recorded by famous artists such as the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal and others.
He left the music scene for the pulpit in later life and the details
of Blind Willie’s death remain nebulous; nonetheless, his legacy grows
exponentially each year.
You have to maintain a certain tolerance for ambiguity to understand
how a disabled African American from central Georgia in the early part
of the 20th century could inspire the likes of the most successful and
influential Blues, Jazz and Rock musicians of our time.
While accomplished and appreciated in his day, Blind Willie was never
truly successful by today’s standards. His real claim to success has
been realized in his gift to future generations. In his lifetime,
overcoming physical and social adversity was part of the program.
Blind Willie McTell plaque at Thomson Depot. The American Dream realized too late?
Not in this case. Blind Willie’s influence continues to affect music
lovers and concert goers regularly; however, through the fundraising and
outreach efforts of ACT, it will continue to educate and influence
others about the true American art form.
Broken Down Engine
“Broke Down Engine”
The Definitive Blind Willie McTell.
©1994 Sony Music Entertainment
“Broke Down Engine”
The Definitive Blind Willie McTell.
©1994 Sony Music Entertainment
Southern Can Is Mine
“Southern Can Is Mine”
Legends of the Blues – Vol. 1.
©1991 Sony Music Entertainment
“Southern Can Is Mine”
Legends of the Blues – Vol. 1.
©1991 Sony Music Entertainment
More on Willie
Another biography can be found on Blues Net.
Listen to the Allman’s Brothers’ version of Statesboro_Blues, which they recorded in 1969.
Read and hear Bob Dylan’s tribute to Willie, “Blind Willie McTell.” Here’s a verse:
Seen the arrow on the door post saying “This land is condemned”
All the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem.
I traveled through East Texas where many martyrs fell
And I know one thing, nobody can sing them blues like Blind Willie McTell.
Willie’s Lyrics
In his Brief History of the Blues,
Robert M. Baker writes: “Blues lyrics contain some of the most
fantastically penetrating autobiographical and revealing statements in
the Western musical tradition.”
Willie’s lyrics were no exception. They penetrated. They revealed.
Desire. Desertion. Loneliness. Tenderness. Pain. Betrayal. Unrequited
love. Hunger. Homesickness. Heartache.
Willie’s Gravesite
Willie McTell is buried at the Jonesgrove Baptist Church in Thomson. Find directions to the site here.
http://bobdylan.com/songs/blind-willie-mctell/
TRACK LISTING
Tracklist:
http://bobdylan.com/songs/blind-willie-mctell/
Blind Willie McTell
by Bob Dylan
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
by Bob Dylan
Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music
Blind Willie McTell - "Statesboro Blues":
Blind Willie Mctell - "Travelin' Blues":
Blind Willie McTell- Last Session (Vinyl LP):
BLIND WILLIE McTELL - ATLANTA TWELVE STRING (FULL ALBUM):
TRACK LISTING
SIDE A:
00:00 KILL IT KID
02:37 THE RAZOR BALL
05:30 LITTLE DELIA
08:34 BROKE DOWN ENGINE BLUES
11:20 DYING CRAPSHOOTER'S BLUES
14:27 PINETOP'S BOOGIE WOOGIE
17:16 BLUES AROUND MIDNIGHT
20:03 LAST DIME BLUES
SIDE B
22:55 ON THE COOLING BOARD
26:05 MOTHERLESS CHILDREN HAVE A HARD TIME
29:00 I GOT TO CROSS THE RIVER JORDAN
33:02 YOU GOT TO DIE
36:14 AIN'T IT GRAND TO LIVE A CHRISTIAN
38:53 PEARLY GATES
42:16 SOON THIS MORNING
Blind Willie McTell - "Pig 'N Whistle Red" 1950 [FULL ALBUM - HIGH QUALITY]:
Tracklist:
(0:00) Don't Forget It
(2:35) Good Little Thing
(4:53) You Can't That Stuff No More
(7:50) Love Changin' Blues
(10:18) Savannah Mama
(12:41) Talkin' To You Mama
(15:52) East St. Louis
(18:32) A to Z Blues
(20:52) Wee Midnight Hours
(24:02) Brown Skin Woman
(27:19) I Keep On Drinkin'
(29:53) Pal Of Mine [take 1]
(32:04) Pal Of Mine [take 2]
(34:46) Honey It Must Be Love
(37:28) Sending Up My Timber [take 1]
(40:33) Sending Up My Timber [take 2]
(43:35) Lord have mercy If You Please
(45:59) Climbing High Moutiains
(48:22) It's My Desire
(51:05) Hide Me In thy Bosom
(2:35) Good Little Thing
(4:53) You Can't That Stuff No More
(7:50) Love Changin' Blues
(10:18) Savannah Mama
(12:41) Talkin' To You Mama
(15:52) East St. Louis
(18:32) A to Z Blues
(20:52) Wee Midnight Hours
(24:02) Brown Skin Woman
(27:19) I Keep On Drinkin'
(29:53) Pal Of Mine [take 1]
(32:04) Pal Of Mine [take 2]
(34:46) Honey It Must Be Love
(37:28) Sending Up My Timber [take 1]
(40:33) Sending Up My Timber [take 2]
(43:35) Lord have mercy If You Please
(45:59) Climbing High Moutiains
(48:22) It's My Desire
(51:05) Hide Me In thy Bosom
Blind Willie McTell - "Lonesome Day Blues":
BLIND WILLIE McTELL--"You Was Born To Die"--1933:
Blind Willie McTell talking about his life and the blues:
McTell is interviewed by blues archivist Alan Lomax:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_McTell
Blind Willie McTell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Blind Willie McTell | |||
|---|---|---|---|
McTell recording for John Lomax in an Atlanta hotel room, November 1940 (photograph by
Ruby Lomax)
|
|||
| Background information | |||
| Birth name | William Samuel McTier | ||
| Also known as | Blind Sammie, Georgia Bill, Hot Shot Willie, Blind Willie, Barrelhouse Sammy, Pig & Whistle Red, Blind Doogie, Red Hot Willie Glaze, Red Hot Willie, Eddie McTier | ||
| Born | May 5, 1898 Thomson, Georgia, US | ||
| Origin | Statesboro, Georgia, U.S. | ||
| Died | August 19, 1959 (aged 61) Milledgeville, Georgia, U.S. | ||
| Genres | Country blues, Piedmont blues, ragtime, Delta blues, gospel | ||
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, songster, accompanist, preacher | ||
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, harmonica, accordion, kazoo, violin | ||
| Years active | 1927–1956 | ||
| Labels | Victor, Columbia, Okeh, Vocalion, Decca, Atlantic, Regal | ||
| Associated acts | Curley Weaver, Kate McTell | ||
| Notable instruments | |||
| Stella twelve-string guitars Harmony twelve-string guitars | |||
Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was a Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voice types employed by Delta bluesmen, such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music and hokum.
McTell was born in Thomson, Georgia. He learned to play the guitar in his early teens. He soon became a street performer in several Georgia cities, including Atlanta and Augusta, and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records. Although he never produced a major hit record, he had a prolific recording career with different labels and under different names in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1940, he was recorded by the folklorist John A. Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax for the folk song archive of the Library of Congress. He was active in the 1940s and 1950s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime associate Curley Weaver. Twice more he recorded professionally. His last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner in 1956. McTell died three years later, having suffered for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his lack of commercial success, he was one of the few blues musicians of his generation who continued to actively play and record during the 1940s and 1950s. He did not live to see the American folk music revival, in which many other bluesmen were "rediscovered'.[1]
McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including the Allman Brothers Band, who covered his "Statesboro Blues", and Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to him in his 1983 song "Blind Willie McTell", the refrain of which is "And I know no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell". Other artists influenced by McTell include Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ralph McTell, Chris Smither and the White Stripes.
Contents
Biography
Born William Samuel McTier[2] in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing the harmonica and accordion, learning to read and write music in Braille,[1] and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.[1][2] His family background was rich in music; both of his parents and an uncle played the guitar. He was related to the bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey.[2] McTell's father left the family when Willie was young. After his mother died, in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became an itinerant musician, or "songster". He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.[3]McTell married Ruth Kate Williams,[1] now better known as Kate McTell, in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. For most of their marriage, from 1942 until his death, they lived apart, she in Fort Gordon, near Augusta, and he working around Atlanta.
In the years before World War II, McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for several labels under different names: Blind Willie McTell (for Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (for Columbia), Georgia Bill (for Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (for Victor), Blind Willie (for Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (for Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (for Regal). The appellation "Pig & Whistle" was a reference to a chain of barbecue restaurants in Atlanta;[citation needed] McTell often played for tips in the parking lot of a Pig 'n Whistle restaurant. He also played behind a nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. Like his fellow songster Lead Belly, who also began his career as a street artist, McTell favored the somewhat unwieldy and unusual twelve-string guitar, whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing.
In 1940 John A. Lomax and his wife, Ruby Terrill Lomax, a professor of classics at the University of Texas at Austin, interviewed and recorded McTell for the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress in a two-hour session held in their hotel room in Atlanta.[4] These recordings document McTell's distinctive musical style, which bridges the gap between the raw country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, ragtime-influenced East Coast Piedmont blues sound. The Lomaxes also elicited from the singer traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") and spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"), which were not part of his usual commercial repertoire. In the interview, John A. Lomax is heard asking if McTell knows any "complaining" songs (an earlier term for protest songs), to which the singer replies somewhat uncomfortably and evasively that he does not. The Library of Congress paid McTell $10, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011, for this two-hour session.[3] The material from this 1940 session was issued in 1960 as an LP and later as a CD, under the somewhat misleading title "The Complete Library of Congress Recordings", notwithstanding the fact that it was in fact truncated, in that it omitted some of John A. Lomax's interactions with the singer and entirely omitted the contributions of Ruby Terrill Lomax.[5]
McTell recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, mostly due to diabetes and alcoholism. In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These recordings were released posthumously by Prestige/Bluesville Records as Last Session.[6] Beginning in 1957, McTell was a preacher at Atlanta's Mt. Zion Baptist Church.[1]
McTell died of a stroke in Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Willie Samuel McTier.[7] He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame in 1981[8] and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990.[1]
In his recording of "Statesboro Blues", he pronounces his surname "MacTell", with the stress on the first syllable.
Influence
Label of one of McTell's most notable works, "Statesboro Blues"
Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions. In his 1965 song "Highway 61 Revisited", the second verse begins, "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", a reference to one of McTell's many recording names. Dylan's song "Blind Willie McTell" was recorded in 1983 and released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3. Dylan also recorded covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong;[10] Dylan's song "Po' Boy", on the album Love and Theft (2001), contains the lyric "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".[11]
The Bath-based band Kill It Kid is named after the song of the same title.[12]
A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bands.[13] The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.[13]
Discography
Singles
| Year | A-side | B-side | Label | Cat. # | Moniker | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | "Stole Rider Blues" | "Mr. McTell Got the Blues" | Victor | 21124 | Blind Willie McTell | |
| "Writing Paper Blues" | "Mamma, Tain't Long Fo' Day" | 21474 | ||||
| 1928 | "Three Women Blues" | "Statesboro Blues" | V38001 | |||
| "Dark Night Blues" | "Loving Talking Blues" | V38032 | ||||
| 1929 | "Atlanta Strut" | "Kind Mama" | Columbia | 14657-D | Blind Sammie | |
| "Travelin' Blues" | "Come on Around to My House Mama" | 14484-D | ||||
| "Drive Away Blues" | "Love Changing Blues" | Victor | V38580 | Blind Willie McTell | ||
| 1930 | "Talking to Myself" | "Razor Ball" | Columbia | 14551-D | Blind Sammie | |
| 1931 | "Southern Can Is Mine" | "Broke Down Engine Blues" | 14632-D | |||
| "Low Rider's Blues" | "Georgia Rag" | OKeh | 8924 | Georgia Bill | ||
| "Stomp Down Rider" | "Scarey Day Blues" | 8936 | ||||
| 1932 | "Mama, Let Me Scoop for You" | "Rollin' Mama Blues" | Victor | 23328 | Hot Shot Willie | with Ruby Glaze |
| "Lonesome Day Blues" | "Searching the Desert for the Blues" | 23353 | ||||
| 1933 | "Savannah Mama" | "B and O Blues No. 2" | Vocalion | 02568 | Blind Willie | |
| "Broke Down Engine" | "Death Cell Blues" | 02577 | ||||
| "Warm It Up to Me" | "Runnin' Me Crazy" | 02595 | ||||
| "It's a Good Little Thing" | "Southern Can Mama" | 02622 | ||||
| "Lord Have Mercy, if You Please" | "Don't You See How This World Made a Change" | 02623 | with "Partner" (Curley Weaver) | |||
| "My Baby's Gone" | "Weary Hearted Blues" | 02668 | ||||
| 1935 | "Bell Street Blues" | "Ticket Agent Blues" | Decca | 7078 | Blind Willie McTell | with Kate McTell |
| "Dying Gambler" | "God Don't Like It" | 7093 | ||||
| "Ain't It Grand to Be a Christian" | "We Got to Meet Death One Day" | 7130 | ||||
| "Your Time to Worry" | "Hillbilly Willie's Blues" | 7117 | ||||
| "Cold Winter Day" | "Lay Some Flowers on My Grave" | 7117 | ||||
| 1950 | "Kill It Kid" | "Broke-Down Engine Blues" | Atlantic | 891 | Barrelhouse Sammy | |
| "River Jordan" | "How About You" | Regal | 3260 | Blind Willie | ||
| "It's My Desire" | "Hide Me in Thy Bosom" | 3272 | ||||
| "Love Changing Blues" | "Talkin' to You Mama" | 3277 | Willie Samuel McTell | with Curley Weaver; attributed to "Pig and Whistle Band" |
- As an accompanist
| Year | Artist | A-side | B-side | Label | Cat. # | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 | Alfoncy and Bethenea Harris | "Teasing Brown" | "This Is Not the Stove to Brown Your Bread" | Victor | V38594 | |
| 1931 | Ruth Day | "Experience Blues" | "Painful Blues" | Columbia | 14642-D | |
| 1931 | Mary Willis | "Rough Alley Blues" | "Low Down Blues" | OKeh | 8921 | |
| "Talkin' to You Wimmin' About the Blues" | "Merciful Blues" | 8932 | ||||
| 1935 | Curley Weaver | "Tricks Ain't Walking No More" | "Early Morning Blues" | Decca | 7077 | |
| "Sometime Mama" | "Two-Faced Woman" | 7906 | McTell plays only on B-side | |||
| "Oh Lawdy Mama" | "Fried Pie Blues" | 7664 | ||||
| 1949 | "My Baby's Gone" | "Ticket Agent" | Sittin' In With | 547 |
Long-plays
| Year | Title | Label | Cat. # | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Last Session | Bluesville | BV 1040 | recorded in 1956 |
| 1966 | Blind Willie McTell: 1940 | Melodeon | MLP 7323 | subtitled The Legendary Library of Congress Session; recorded in 1940 |
Selected compilations
- Blind Willie McTell 1927–1933: The Early Years, Yazoo L-1005 (1968)
- Blind Willie McTell 1949: Trying To Get Home, Biograph BLP-12008 (1969)
- King of the Georgia Blues Singers (1929–1935), Roots RL-324 (1969)
- Atlanta Twelve String, Atlantic SD-7224 (1972)
- Death Cell Blues, Biograph BLP-C-14 (1973)
- Blind Willie McTell: 1927–1935, Yazoo L-1037 (1974)
- Blind Willie McTell: 1927–1949 The Remaining Titles, Wolf WSE 102 (1982)
- Blues in the Dark – MCA 1368 (1983)
- Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 1, Document DOCD-5006 (1990)
- Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 2, Document DOCD-5007 (1990)
- Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 3, Document DOCD-5008 (1990)
- these three albums were issued together as the box set Statesboro Blues, Document DOCD-5677 (1990)
- Complete Library of Congress Recordings in Chronological Order, RST Blues Documents BDCD-6001 (1990)
- Pig 'n Whistle Red, Biograph BCD 126 (1993)
- The Definitive Blind Willie McTell, Legacy C2K-53234 (1994)
- The Classic Years 1927–1940, JSP JSP7711 (2003)
- King of the Georgia Blues, Snapper SBLUECD504X (2007)
Selected compilations with other artists
- Blind Willie McTell/Memphis Minnie: Love Changin' Blues, Biograph BLP-12035 (1971)
- Atlanta Blues 1933, JEMF 106 (1979)
- Blind Willie McTell and Curley Weaver: The Post-War Years, RST Blues Documents BDCD 6014 (1990)
- Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920's, vol. 5, Blues Images – BIM-105 (2007)
References
- "Blind Willie's – Atlanta's Finest Blues Bar". Blindwillieblues.com. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
Bibliography
- Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986/1995. ISBN 0-252-06521-2, ISBN 978-0-252-06521-7
- Charters, Samuel, Editor. Sweet as the Showers of Rain. Oak Publications, 1977, pp, 120–131.
- Gray, Michael. Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell Chicago Review Press, 2009.
External links
- New Georgia Encyclopedia – Blind Willie McTell article
- Illustrated Blind Willie McTell discography
- Works by or about Blind Willie McTell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Blind Willie's gravesite
- "Statesboro Blues" MP3 file on the Internet Archive
- David Fulmer, producer "Blind Willie's Blues" Documentary film, 1996
- "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues" Novel by David Fulmer featuring McTell as a character
- John May interviews biographer Michael Gray
- Review of Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray
