Johnny Williams (blues musician)
Encyclopedia
Johnny Williams was an American
Chicago
-based blues
guitar
player and singer, who was one of the first of the new generation of electric blues
players to record after World War II.
, United States
, to parents who were both musicians. He was raised in Houston, Texas
, and moved to Belzoni, Mississippi
to live with his uncle Anthony Williams after his mother died around 1917. There he met local musicians such as the Chatmon brothers
and Charley Patton (with whom his uncle played), and learned to play the guitar. After traveling North during the 1920s, he returned to Belzoni around 1930, where he occasionally played locally. Moving to Chicago
in 1938, he worked at first in the defense industry and later for Oscar Meyer. By 1943 he was playing in clubs in the evenings while working as a meat packer in the daytime, working with Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor
around 1944. In 1944 he lost the end of a finger in a meat grinder and gave up playing the guitar for a year, until he saw Blind Arvella Gray
, who was missing two fingers from his left hand, playing on Maxwell Street, and learned to play the guitar without the missing finger. In the late 1940s Williams was once more playing on Maxwell Street and in clubs, often working with his cousin the mandolin
player Johnny Young or with harmonica
player Snooky Pryor and guitarists Floyd Jones
and Moody Jones
, and with Little Walter
, and had joined the Musicians' Union. Around this time, he acquired the nickname "Uncle Johnny", by which he was known among his blues associates for the rest of his life.
Williams continued to work in music into the 1950s, eventually joining Big Boy Spires
's Rocket Four, with whom he had his final recording session for Chance Records
in 1953. The session resulted in a single released under Spires's name, but the two tracks on which Williams sang were unreleased until the 1970s.
At 99 years old, Williams was interviewed for the documentary film, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street
, where he is featured extensively. "Uncle Johnny gave us his last interview just a few months before he died", says the film's director, Phil Ranstrom. "He gives the most beautiful and poetic definition of the blues I've ever heard and it brings tears to people's eyes whenever they hear it. He is the real deal, the last of a generation of wandering blues artist who did it because they really felt it."
Williams died in Chicago on March 6, 2006, at the age of 99.
Blues musicians John Lee Hooker
and Baby Boy Warren
have also used the name Johnny Williams.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
player and singer, who was one of the first of the new generation of electric blues
Electric blues
Electric blues is a type of blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and often the harmonica. Pioneered in the 1930s, it emerged as a genre in Chicago in the 1940s. It was taken up in many areas of America leading to the development of regional subgenres...
players to record after World War II.
Early life and career
Williams was born in Alexandria, LouisianaAlexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, to parents who were both musicians. He was raised in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and moved to Belzoni, Mississippi
Belzoni, Mississippi
Belzoni is a city in Humphreys County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, on the Yazoo River. The population was 2,663 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Humphreys County...
to live with his uncle Anthony Williams after his mother died around 1917. There he met local musicians such as the Chatmon brothers
Mississippi Sheiks
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues, but were adept at many styles of United States popular music of the time, and their records were bought by both black and white audiences.In 2004, they...
and Charley Patton (with whom his uncle played), and learned to play the guitar. After traveling North during the 1920s, he returned to Belzoni around 1930, where he occasionally played locally. Moving to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1938, he worked at first in the defense industry and later for Oscar Meyer. By 1943 he was playing in clubs in the evenings while working as a meat packer in the daytime, working with Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor
Hound Dog Taylor
Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.-Career:Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 . He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20...
around 1944. In 1944 he lost the end of a finger in a meat grinder and gave up playing the guitar for a year, until he saw Blind Arvella Gray
Arvella Gray
Blind Arvella Gray was an American blues, folk and gospel singer and guitarist.His birth name was James Dixon, and he was born in Somerville, Texas, United States...
, who was missing two fingers from his left hand, playing on Maxwell Street, and learned to play the guitar without the missing finger. In the late 1940s Williams was once more playing on Maxwell Street and in clubs, often working with his cousin the mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
player Johnny Young or with harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
player Snooky Pryor and guitarists Floyd Jones
Floyd Jones
Floyd Jones was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, who is significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after World War II. A number of Jones' recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom, and his song "On...
and Moody Jones
Moody Jones
Moody Jones was an American blues guitarist, bass player, and singer, who is significant for his role in the development of the post-war Chicago blues sound in the late 1940s.-Life and career:...
, and with Little Walter
Little Walter
Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
, and had joined the Musicians' Union. Around this time, he acquired the nickname "Uncle Johnny", by which he was known among his blues associates for the rest of his life.
Recordings
Williams's first recordings were made in 1947 with Johnny Young and resulted in one of the two singles issued on the Ora-Nelle label. On one side of the record Young sang "Money Taking Woman" accompanied by Williams, while the other side featured Williams singing "Worried Man Blues". In December 1948 Young and Williams were joined by Snooky Pryor to record a single for the Planet label.Williams continued to work in music into the 1950s, eventually joining Big Boy Spires
Arthur "Big Boy" Spires
Arthur "Big Boy" Spires was an American blues singer and guitarist, who recorded for a number of record labels in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s.-Life and career:...
's Rocket Four, with whom he had his final recording session for Chance Records
Chance Records
Chance Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1950 by Art Sheridan. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel.Among the acts who recorded for Chance were The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Homesick James, J. B. Hutto, Brother John Sellers, and Schoolboy Porter...
in 1953. The session resulted in a single released under Spires's name, but the two tracks on which Williams sang were unreleased until the 1970s.
Later career and death
After 1953 Williams continued to work with Hound Dog Taylor and others, but stopped playing blues in 1959 after a religious conversion, and joined the Baptist church, becoming an ordained minister in the early 1960s.At 99 years old, Williams was interviewed for the documentary film, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street
Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street
Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street is a 90 minute documentary film, narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, which details the rise and fall of Chicago's Maxwell Street...
, where he is featured extensively. "Uncle Johnny gave us his last interview just a few months before he died", says the film's director, Phil Ranstrom. "He gives the most beautiful and poetic definition of the blues I've ever heard and it brings tears to people's eyes whenever they hear it. He is the real deal, the last of a generation of wandering blues artist who did it because they really felt it."
Williams died in Chicago on March 6, 2006, at the age of 99.
Blues musicians John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
and Baby Boy Warren
Baby Boy Warren
Baby Boy Warren was an American blues singer and guitarist, who was a leading figure on the Detroit blues scene in the 1950s.-Early life:...
have also used the name Johnny Williams.