BluesWax Sittin' In With
Jody Williams
Part Two
By James Walker
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Jody Williams
Photo By Scott Allen
Last week we (check the
archives if you missed Part One last week) left off with Jody Williams discussing
his touring band and his latest release, You Left Me In The Dark. This
week we pick up the discussion between James Walker and Jody at the liner
notes. Enjoy!
James Walker for BluesWax: In the liner notes by
Dave Rubin, you are quoted as saying that you don't "listen to other
guitar players."
JW: One guitar player goes somewhere and hears and
takes a little bit of this. Then he'll go somewhere else and hear something.
The next thing you know, everybody has got the same stuff in their heads. And,
I don't! I don't want to sound like everybody else. It's hard to go around and
not listen to any guitar players; I hear some. I pay attention to one once in a
while that sounds good to me. And, I compliment them on it. But, if I did play
something they played that I like, I'm gonna add the Jody Williams touch to it
and make it sound a little bit different. I try hard not to listen to everybody
else; I really do because I don't want all that in my mind when I play guitar.
I'm playing what is in my head. In my shows, I do a little tribute to B.B.
King and T-Bone Walker. You can hear them in my music, and that's
only natural because I learned and been influenced by them.
BW: You played with them and some other greats.
JW: There's been many that I played with and recorded
with - I was fortunate. You know, when all this was going on, I didn't think
too much of it. It was just something that happened. People asked me a long
time ago, "What was it like to be with the old time greats?" I said,
"Aww, they weren't great - they were just some people I hung out with, that's
all." But, they were great! They were great! Because, they were the
forerunners of most of the stuff you hear nowadays.
BW: I guess at that time, it was just normal day-to-day
life going on?
JW: Sonny Boy Williamson [Rice Miller]
- I was recording with him and stuff like that. And, [Howlin'] Wolf and
all these other people, it was just a regular thing. [Suddenly more animated]
You know last year [2003] I was at the Winthrop [Washington] Blues Festival, we
were just tuning up and getting ready to play. I hadn't played anything -
hadn't played my first song yet. Someone close to the stage shouted out to play
a Howlin' Wolf song. So, I went to the microphone, and I told him, "Even
though I played with and recorded with Howlin' Wolf, I don't do any of his
songs. I'd kill what little voice I have trying to sing like Wolf! There was
only one Wolf.' You got all these wannabes out there - Howlin' Wolf this and a
Taildragger here and a Taildragger, Jr. and all this kinda stuff. They all need
to get their own name! If they are so good, play under their own name. I play
under my own name; Hubert Sumlin plays under his own name. That bugs the
hell out of me when people do that. I am not trying to make it on anybody's
coattails; I'm making it on my own skills that the good Lord gave me. If these
other people are so good, they can drop all these phony-ass names they use -
make it on your own!
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BW: I hear you are included in the traveling museum Blues
exhibit. ["Sweet Home Chicago: Big City Blues 1946-1966," a major
exhibition developed by the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington and
currently showing at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi]
JW: I went over to see it [at Chicago's Museum of
Science and Industry]. When I stood in the middle of those exhibits and
everything, a warm feeling came over me because I have played with, knew, or
recorded with at least one half of the peoples in there. Then I stood in front
of my own exhibit, and I'll tell you - I just can't help but get emotional
sometimes - thinking about the past and all that. Matter of fact, I been there
three times.
BW: What did they have in the exhibit on you?
JW: Ah, some photos - there was photos of me and Wolf
and me and Bo Diddley together, and some programs from when I was with
the big Rhythm and Blues shows back in the '50s - Bill Haley and the Comets,
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Bo Diddley - all those people. And my
amplifier - the same amplifier I used on those shows.
BW: Wow, your old amp!
JW: Yeah, there are some egg stains on the end of
that amplifier. That came about down south. We had about 65 one-nighters with
these big Rhythm and Blues shows. And, you know there was prejudice down in the
South there. They didn't want blacks and whites on the stage together and all
that kinda stuff. Well, Bill Haley and Roy Hamilton closed the
show. I loved to hear Roy Hamilton sing, and I liked Bill Haley's lead guitar
player so I stopped what I was doing and stood behind the curtain to listen to
the end of the show. So I'm standing behind there one night and Bill Haley is
out there on the stage, and I see him flailing his arms and everything. I
thought he had added something new to the show. But what he was doing - he was
ducking and dodging tomatoes and fruit and eggs and stuff. But, I didn't know
that until I saw eggs breaking and splashing on the end of my amplifier. That's
when it dawned on me what was going on.
BW: Well, who was throwing the eggs?
JW: People out in the audience!
BW: Because they didn't want the white guy on stage?
JW: Yeah! Looky here. If I remember correctly, in at
least two or three of those southern cities we played in, the [Ku Klux] Klan
threatened to march and all that bullshit. I think it was that same night Bill
Haley was out there on stage ducking fruits and eggs and stuff, I see somebody
walking back and forth around the stage. It was these white guys that looked
like they were somebody pretty important around there. And, they were looking
pretty nervous like they were scared about something. Come to find out, not
only had the Klan threatened to march and people were throwing fruit from the
audience, somebody had called in a bomb threat. So, it was the fire inspector
and the mayor or somebody back there looking for a bomb!
BW: Holy cow!
JW: I lived through all that stuff. Don't nobody need
to tell me about this and that, I was there! I played behind the Teen Queens
- they were a couple of girls from California [Betty and Rosie
Collins] and they had this record out Eddie My Love (1956) - and I
also played behind Big Joe Turner. That's when "Corina,
Corina" came out. The guitar starts that off so I played that onstage.
Well, I just changed jackets - I wore a tuxedo and came back out there and
played with these different people. I was there when all that stuff was going
on!
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BW: That's just incredible!
JW: Yeah, we were down south somewhere - Atlanta
maybe - when Roy Hamilton - you know he was the Luther Vandross of his
day, a big star. Well, his accompanist - piano player- would play and direct
the orchestra while Roy sang. But, see he was white while all the orchestra was
black. So what they did was, they closed the curtains, and Roy Hamilton would
stand out in front of the curtains and sing while his white accompanist played
piano and direct the band behind the curtain.
BW: Man, that was wrong!
JW: Down in Birmingham, Alabama, we did two shows
there. We did a show in the afternoon for the whites and one in the evening for
the blacks. I was in both shows on the same stage. In the orchestra pit in
front of the stage there was about twelve policemen! They had the white
citizen's council walking out in front with picket signs. I lived through all
that. I am talking about what I know for certain because I was there!
BW: Well, things are not perfect now, but they've come a
long way! It's got to be warming for the receptions that you get now as you
travel.
JW: The first European gig in November 2000 - it was
my second professional gig [since coming back] - the people over there treated
me almost like royalty. I almost got emotional onstage about two or three
times. Another thing that surprised me, I was autographing all my old records
like Lucky Lou and You May. Somebody put in front of me a copy of
Billy's Blues [by Billy Stewart with Jody on session guitar]. I
didn't know anybody even knew that was me! I wrote the song; that's me playing
on there, and I wrote the song. People knew who I was! When I came off the
stage at the bottom of the stairs, I was signing autographs, and I hadn't even
had time to take my guitar off. Some guy even wanted my guitar pick. So, yeah,
I am enjoying it.
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Jody Williams' You Left
Me In The Dark
Click Cover For More Info
BW: That's great! I am just overwhelmed hearing your
stories - that is a lot of history there.
JW: I have lived a very interesting life. Some of the
stuff that has happened to me is hard to believe. But, fact is stranger than
fiction. A woman working for the record company [Evidence Music] asked me if I
was there when this girl killed Henry "Pot" Strong [Muddy
Waters' harmonica player). I was there; I was right there. She even started
at Muddy with the knife. Pot was supposed to go with them on a tour and do some
one-nighters. Muddy and the rest of the guys were downstairs in the car waiting
on him to get his stuff together when his woman cut him. Muddy came upstairs to
see what was the hold up. Pot ran past him [bleeding] so he came on up anyways.
And, Juanita [Strong's wife] started at him with the knife! He ran back
downstairs, and I went back in my room and locked the door! She wasn't getting
to me! I even went to her trial. I was there. Sometimes, it's really hard to
believe when I stop and think about it. I have lived a very interesting life.
Portions of this interview were previously published in
the Kankakee Sunday Journal (Illinois) July 25, 2004. They were used
with permission.
James Walker is a contributing editor at BluesWax.
James may be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED].
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This Week in BluesWax:
Jody Williams
- In the E-zine:
BluesWax is Sittin' In With Jody Williams. Part Two of our interview
with Blues great Jody Williams covers recording with Robert Jr. Lockwood,
stolen songs, and much more.
- On the News
Page: All the news that's Blues!
- On the Photo
Page: Ana Popovic Live!
- On the Blues
Bytes page: BluesWax is Sittin' In With John Paul Rena. Check
out what's going on with this Bluesman from the Netherlands.
- On the Blues
Beat page: The Blues Foundation is the mother ship for all that is
Blues. This week we turnover the Blues Beat page to Blues Foundation Director
Jay Sieleman for some public service announcements from this great
organization. Check it out for some cool news from the people who support the
Blues.
- Under BluesWax
Picks: The Janiva Magness CD Bury Him at the Crossroads touched
Dave Good so much we decided to run another review of the disc this week;
Beardo reviews Canned Heat's The Boogie House Tapes Volume Two, Jimmy
Smith's Prayer Meetin', and the various artist compilation the American
Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 CD; plus reviews of Show Me The Money from
Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King and Buzz Me by Miss T & the
Mosquitoes.
- One
Year Ago Today In BluesWax: Part One of BluesWax's coverage of The
Blues series of films covers the first four of seven films in this PBS
series spearheaded by director Martin Scorsese.
- Don't forget to play the Blues Trivia
Game: Remember, everyone who plays is in the drawing for the prize!
This week's prize: the CD Bury Him at the Crossroads by Janiva Magness,
courtesy of our friend Janiva Magness and NorthernBlues Music. Play Today!
