David "Honeyboy" Edwards - 1942, 1979 & 1991 Delta Bluesman (1992)

> The album

The last of the early delta bluesmen

David "Honeyboy" Edwards is a perfect illustration of how the Chicago blues appeared when Mississippi Delta bluesmen moved up north to the Windy City, like he did himself.
Born in 1915 in Shaw, about 20 km north west of Indianola, he started roaming the Delta roads and streets at age 14. For the next 20 years or so, he lived the life of an itinerant bluesman busking at street corners and playing the usual blues circuit : barrelhouses, juke joints or brothels, fish fry parties, picnics or Saturday night dances… anywhere people were ready to listen to blues and pay a few dimes for it. 

During this rambling period he met and played with such legendary Delta blues pioneers as Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Tommy McClennan, Peetie Wheatstraw, Son House, Little Walter Jacobs, Robert Lockwood Jr., Tommy Johnson, Johnny Shines, Big Joe Williams... The legend says he was with Johnson on the 1938 evening when Johnson drank the poison liquor that killed him.

Around 1932, Big Joe Williams had taken "Honeyboy" with him to tour the Mississippi and Louisiana "chitlin' circuit". In 1942, Library of Congress ethno-musicologist Alan Lomax recorded about fifteen songs from "Honeyboy" in Clarksdale. In the early fifties, "Honeyboy" definitely moved up north to Chicago, where he played in small clubs and street corners, recording some tracks for different labels that remained unreleased for many years.

In 1972, in Chicago, "Honeyboy" became friend with Michael Frank, a young harmonica player and blues fan. Four years later, in 1976, they formed The Honeyboy Edwards Blues Band, playing in the North Side clubs until Frank founded the Earwig Music label in 1979, releasing an album titled "Old Friends Together For The First Time" featuring "Honeyboy" (guitar), Sunnyland Slim (piano), Arthur Lee Stevenson aka Kansas City Red (drums), Floyd Jones (bass), and Big Walter Horton (harmonica).
Thirteen years later, in 1992, Frank's Earwig Music released this album, "Delta Bluesman", that combines early Lomax tracks from the 1942's Clarksdale tapes with 1979 and 1991 recordings.

"Honeyboy" pursued his performing and recording career until April 2011, when he played his last 2 shows during the Clarksdale Juke Joint Festival. Four months later, on August 29, 2011, he died at his Chicago home from heart failure. He was 96 !

The album "Delta Bluesman" might seem artificial and wobbly at first glance. In fact it is a very interesting analysis of the migration of the pre-war Delta acoustic country blues  to post-war electric Chicago blues, resulting from the arrival in the Northern industrial city of many Mississippi rural bluesmen in the late 1940s and during the 1950s & 1960s decades, in the same way that many Louisiana bluesmen moved to neighboring Texas.

The first half gathers twelve acoustic solo tracks recorded in 1942 by Lomax; the second half, eight pieces recorded by "Honeyboy" with a band many  years later in Chicago and London, in 1979 and 1991 (*). Two sides of the same man, equally talented in acoustic country blues and electric Chicago style.
History flows from one song to the next, cut by six enriching spoken interludes of "Honeyboy" telling funny and interesting memories of the past. From 1942 or 1979 &1991, acoustic or electric, this album is down-home as can be. Behind the Chicago tracks, the rural Delta blues watermarks are always audible.
When David "Honeyboy" Edwards passed, the last living witness of the heroic Charley Patton and Robert Johnson era disappeared. ■

(*) Tracks 1, 2, 4 to 14 were produced and recorded for the Library Of Congress in July 1942 by Alan Lomax in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Tracks 17, 19, 21 were recorded in October 1991, at IdealSound Recorders, London. Tracks 16, 23, 24, 26 were recorded in December, 1991 at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago. Track 27 was recorded in June, 1979 at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago. The "missing" numbers are spoken tracks

History

► The bluesmen's "hobo" life told by David "Honeyboy" Edwards : 

"On Saturday, somebody like me or Robert Johnson would go into one of these little towns, play for nickels and dimes. And sometimes, you know, you could be playin' and have such a big crowd that it would block the whole street. Then the police would come around, and then I'd go to another town and where I could play at. But most of the time, they would let you play. Then sometimes the man who owned a country store would give us something like a couple of dollars to play on a Saturday afternoon. We could hitchhike, transfer from truck to truck, or if we couldn't catch one of them, we'd go to the train yard, 'cause the railroad was all through that part of the country then...we might hop a freight, go to St. Louis or Chicago. Or we might hear about where a job was paying off – a highway crew, a railroad job, a levee camp there along the river, or some place in the country where a lot of people were workin' on a farm. You could go there and play and everybody would hand you some money. I didn't have a special place then. Anywhere was home. Where I do good, I stay. When it gets bad and dull, I'm gone." (quoted from the 1981 book "Deep Blues" by Robert Palmer).

► "Army Blues", a rare video of from 1942 (note his incredible guitar technique !) : https://youtu.be/4FMpW9laHIY

Interviews & Talks

► Audio docs of "Honeyboy" talking about Robert Johnson :
→ https://youtu.be/i8AanZBEnDU
→ https://youtu.be/Rbxh6Iew7rM
→ https://youtu.be/3U1o4sHC6ug
► About his life in Mississippi : https://youtu.be/AGntY_lJPDs
► Honeyboy and the history of the Blues Trail : https://youtu.be/TGvs8pAHTH8
► Telling stories about his early days as a blues musician at the Toledo University in 2007 : https://youtu.be/uiicSdeS8OM

► His final Q&A session in April  2011 at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale (5-part playlist) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA91845EEC0250FD9
► "Honeyboy" tells his story : https://youtu.be/5500z0aGhK0
► Interviewed by GG Amos at the Sacramento Blues Festival in 1986 : https://youtu.be/1rj-xOBBBz4
► On Acoustic Life : https://youtu.be/JNnFH7agPuQ
► "Honeyboy" life story interview : https://youtu.be/OI4J3LTvUAk

Live videos

► At Spaziomusica in Pavia (Italy) in 1992 (1h32) : https://youtu.be/NtevxyWwqbs
► At The Montreal Jazz Festival in 1998 (awful video quality!) :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/qJrEhcs0His
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/N0qpeR7sGts
► At the Cat Head Mini Blues Fest, Clarksdale, in 2005 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/UlTm0dXWZFo
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/FdJ_PY-H9FA
► At BB King's in New York City in 2007 (with his longtime manager and friend, Michael Frank, on harmonica, and Rocky Lawrence, also a longtime sideman, on second guitar) : https://youtu.be/hIhSL45GTYQ

► Live in Memphis in May 2007 : https://youtu.be/AKupSIktzGM
► In Sept 2009 at 94 : https://youtu.be/MDfmpgjkvfc
► At Biscuits & Blues, San Francisco, in 2009 : https://youtu.be/Ig91Z0-rBfo
► In 2010, at 95, with Jeff Dale on guitar & M. Frank on harmonica :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/5GYIi60RgaE
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/CEpZkXVgazs
► "Apron Strings" at the 7th annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale in April 2010 : https://youtu.be/RM_qEyn62l4

► Still at the top of his game at 95, at the Kitchener Blues Festival in Aug 2010 : https://youtu.be/3RmfKr8FryM
► "That's Alright" at the Yale Hotel in Vancouver on March 28, 2010, at 94  (with Les Copeland on guitar and Michael Frank on harmonica) : https://youtu.be/hApxuarjzwE
► At WBEZ Chicago Public Radio : https://youtu.be/TRgg_9TmI-w
► At The Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon, in his 90's at the time : https://youtu.be/PnB8d6_U_2s

► 'Sweet Home Chicago" :
→ At the Sheffield Boardwalk in Sept 2009 : https://youtu.be/-BjgLGkl1j4
→ At the Briggs Farm Blues Festival, Nescopeck, PA, in July 2010 : https://youtu.be/KzfNDwlpvtQ
► "Going Down Slow" at the Briggs Farm Blues Festival, Nescopeck, PA, in July 10, 2010 : https://youtu.be/J895Pp4k6hI

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Kelly Joe Phelps - Lead Me On (1994)

> The album

Mystical country blues

Simplicity raised to the level of greatness ! The warm raw sound of the slide guitar, the stomp-box beat and Phelps' hoarse voice really desperate singing cast a mystical spell on the listener. This album, his first, distillates a gospel country-folk blues as authentic and pure as the water of the Cascades mountains waterfalls of his native Washington state. But his musical roots are obviously down in the Mississippi Delta.

Phelps, who surprisingly started as a jazz musician interested in Miles Davis or John Coltrane for about a decade, switched to blues after being struck by a revelation from listening to Fred McDowell. He has kept from his early period the deconstruction-reconstruction approach of jazz and applied it to folk blues, breaking the holy twelve-bar architecture of blues and reinventing a new style which miraculously sound as authentic as the traditional one.

His own six compositions are hard to identify from his versions of the four traditionals and three covers of Skip James, Joe Callicott and Herman Johnson songs (*read below*). Phelps make these as much his own as his originals are.

His somber lyrics reflect the tormented mystical soul of the man. If you're interested, you will find them on  the link below.
The words of this brooding, gospel-based acoustic Delta blues are rolling in Phelps' mouth just like the slow muddy waters of the Mississippi river, in a soulful gut-wrenching way. His voice is an instrument by itself, inseparable from his slide guitar, most of the time played on his lap.

His Delta style playing is irreproachable, and Phelps has enriched it by borrowing finger picking techniques and melodic richness from the Piedmont style. The blend is just irresistible !
This strongly gospel-influenced blues album is a real marvel not to be missed. "I've Been Converted" sings Phelps on the first track. Well, I surely have been ! ■

◄ Joe Callicott

(*) I've Been Converted (Traditional) - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues (Nehemiah James aka Skip James) - Where Do I Go Now (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Love Me Baby Blues ("Mississippi" Joe Callicott) - Lead Me On (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed (Traditional) - Leavin' Blues (Herman E. Johnson) - Marking Stone Blues (Kelly Joe Phelps) - The Black Crow Keeps Flying (Kelly Joe Phelps) - I'd To Be A Rich Man (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Someone To Save Me (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Motherless Children (Traditional) - Fare Thee Well (Traditional)

The lyrics
► https://american-music.forum-actif.eu/t649-lead-me-on-1994-paroles#3359

Two songs from the album
► "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" live at the Blue Owl's Nest in Bridgetown (Western Australia) in 2013 : https://youtu.be/_eb0XlNbPjE
► "Black crow keeps flying" live in studio : https://youtu.be/3z4Z8C4fEQI

The live videos
Note that Phelps repertoire, as you'll understand from these videos, is not entirely made of gospel and country blues but also extends to folk...

► "Country Blues" at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA, in 2009 : https://youtu.be/7aSCeN01BFA
► In Holland in 2012 :
→ https://youtu.be/dHGTyoNtmNk
→ "Wagoner's Lad" : https://youtu.be/XobFGacl0TA
→ "Hope In The Lord To Provide" : https://youtu.be/l2uHImNWA9w
→ "Moonshiner" : https://youtu.be/BxWW1FtHdU4

► At the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California, in 2012 :
→ "Sometimes a Drifter" : https://youtu.be/k6lWbYJCjEA
→ "Hard Time They Never Go Away" : https://youtu.be/bEImPb8QxSk
► A very personal version of Robert Johnson's "Hellhounds On My Trail" with a jazzy intro, in Cedar City, Utah, in 2012 : https://youtu.be/jrqyD_1bBEw

► At the Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury (England), in 2013 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/8hC2DVJO_Qw
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/Yh_JxuCpzVY
→ Part 3 : https://youtu.be/9Ok4h2jsD4M
→ Part 4 : https://youtu.be/79_6tc72exA
→ Part 5 : https://youtu.be/yHRQhuAuFEs
→ Part 6 : https://youtu.be/9adz-GKyi3I
► "River Rat Jimmy" at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee : https://youtu.be/NP1O7ogdkyE

► "Goodnight Irene" : https://youtu.be/eGH3FpeV_xI (slap slide guitar version) & https://youtu.be/WHd2h4eXw1k
► "Go There" : https://youtu.be/Wmut5WhT3cI (on slap slide guitar)

► With Corinne West in 2019 : https://youtu.be/cfcowtay8is

_______________________________

Toby Walker - Shake Shake Mama (2011)

> The album

The roots finger style wizard

Toby Walker is as much a keeper of the old acoustic blues traditions, in their different regional styles, as a passer on to younger generations through his guitar teachings, and as a full creator able to transform old songs through his personal creative style.
A guitar virtuoso, wearing an eternal cap and tropical shirts, who confesses he probably has some 50,000 hours of training in his fingers, he went down many times to the Mississippi Delta or the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmont to meet and learn blues styles of elders like Etta Baker, Eugene Powell (Sonny Boy Nelson), Jack Owens and Bud Spires, James 'Son' Thomas, R.L. Burnside, Turner Foddrell, Wade Walton... He won the prestigious International Blues Challenge Award-Solo Category in 2002.

A humorous hijack of Jimmy "Duck Holmes Blue Front Cafe
juke-joint in Bentonia ►

 For six tears, he was a regular contributor at the famous Fur Peace Ranch guitar-workshop of Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airlane, Hot Tuna…), and is still teaching blues guitar to high school kids or through videos or DVDs published by Happy Traum’s Homespun Music. As if it was not enough, between two album's recording sessions, he tours the U.S. and abroad, and is now referred to as the "finger-picking guitar wizard".
And he really is. To achieve such a status he had to leave his 20-year long job at the U.S. Postal Service, and later endure a divorce, but the result, as can be heard on this great 2011 album, was worth those sacrifices. At least for the listener.

These 16 tracks give a good idea of Walker's taste : the featured songs are signed by Mance Lipscomb, Blind Willie McTell (2 tracks), Robert Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller (2), Blind Blake, Blind Willie Johnson, Muddy Waters (3), Huddie Ledbetter (aka Leadbelly), Big Bill Broonzy, Fred McDowell and Bo Carter (*). 

With Etta Baker ▼

His study of old-school blues with guitar players from whom he learned special finger-picking and slide style techniques, rhythmical syncopation and open tuning secrets, allowed him not only to master but also to synthesize a wide range of styles (Delta, Piedmont, Chicago or Texas, rags, folk…) into a personal blend that makes him unique. His use of rare vintage guitars, benefiting at the same time from modern recording techniques, produces a superb sound.

◄ On stage with wife Carol

His versions of the swinging "Shake Shake Mama", of "Mama Tain't Long For The Day" and "Travelin' Riverside Blues", of the superb "Midnight Special", of "Can't Be Satisfied" and "Broke Down Engine", or of the rocking "Cigarette Blues" are amazing. If Walker's raspy voice obviously doesn't sound Afro-American, he's still managing elegantly, and the swinging upright bass played by Mrs Walker (probably before the divorce) adds a welcome depth that underlines Walker's exceptional guitar style.
His synthesis between Piedmont elaborate finger-picking technique and Delta raw style, spiced with a bit of Texas or Chicago touch, is just a treat for the ears ! ■

(*) Who created what : "Shake Shake Mama" : Mance Lipscomb - "Crazy 'bout An Automobile" : Trad. - "Mama Tain't Long For The Day" : Blind Willie McTell - "Travelin' Riverside Blues" : Robert Johnson - "Keep On Trucking Mama" : Blind Boy Fuller - "Tootie Blues" : Blind Blake - "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burnin'" : Blind Willie Johnson - "I Got To Love Somebody" : Muddy Waters - "Midnight Special" : Huddie Ledbetter - "Shuffle Rag" : Big Bill Broonzy - "Can't Be Satisfied" : Muddy Waters - "What's The Matter Now" : Fred McDowell - "Meat Shakin' Mama" : Blind Boy Fuller - "Broke Down Engine" : Blind Willie McTell - "She's 19 Years Old" : Muddy Waters - "Cigarette Blues" : Bo Carter.

The disciple

◄ With Eugene Powell

► Check up Walker's web site: https://www.littletobywalker.com/, you'll find interesting things, especially in the "Learning from the Masters" and "How I Got The Blues" sections.

► "Chasin' The Blues" a documentary by Toby Walker about his field trips to Mississippi and North Carolina to meet and learn from Eugene Powell, Jack Owens, James 'Son' Thomas, Etta Baker... : https://youtu.be/LavKk0rH-YI

► Interview before Walker's UK Tour in 2019 : https://youtu.be/tRaHdCmr4Mw

► Interview with Happy Traum : https://youtu.be/jWyLMd3xPus

► "Canned Heat Blues" with Jorma Kaukonen: https://youtu.be/XVQjNVFU2cs

The teacher

► The "Toby Waker in the Studio" & "Blues Time With Toby Walker" series : https://www.youtube.com/user/tobywalker123

The performer

► On Toby Walker's site: https://www.littletobywalker.com/recent-concert-videos.html

► Live at Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch (entire set) : https://youtu.be/6tPDV6KVvYE

► At the Long Beach Barrier Blues Fest.in 2015 : https://youtu.be/ojQXT440ri8

◄ Toby Walker with Jorma Kaukonen

► Private concert in Merritts Path (Long Island, New York), in 2021 : https://youtu.be/jTB5DLdmQ1o

► At The Brick Box in Rutland (Vermont) in 2019 : https://youtu.be/12GpR4aMdsg

► On the Folk Project Television in 2020 : https://youtu.be/nA66zUKgdQM?t=348

► Toby Walker & Ken Korb (harmonica and banjo) who used to play together as Toby & The Rocket reunite after 15 years for a performance at the Long Island Blues Warehouse : https://youtu.be/VqQaibmiOq0

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Buddy Blue - Sordid Lives (2003)

> The album

Buddy's bottled cool jazz

Buddy Blue (Bernard R. Seigal, born in 1957, according to his passport) is a peculiar and atypical character. He became locally famous in the San Diego area as a member of the Beat Farmers, and later on of the Jacks, two already atypical rock bands blending different styles, from rockabilly and country-rock to swamp and punk rock, before slowly drifting towards jump blues and jazz, while writing as a quite irreverent music critic in several Californian newspapers (Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribune…)

In 2003, his "Sordid Lives" were released, a collection of definitely cool swinging vocal jazz tracks, all original songs except "St. James Infirmary". Again, Blue is an atypical but talented lyricist, apparently much concerned with the bottle 😉, as symbolically cued by the glass of wine on the front cover picture. That he is a Cab Calloway fan, you'd guess by just listening to the first tracks this album.

He's perfect in the cool vocal style and is an excellent and elegant jazz guitarist as show his great solos on "Horn Rims" or "Monk Side Story" for example. He puts out a sound reminding that of Danny Gatton, particularly on his (Gatton's) live "Redneck Jazz Explosion" albums.

"Upsettin' Me" sounds like a rather classic vocal jazz piece, but what's coming next is not exactly as expected from this first track. This is immediately illustrated by the sometimes surrealistic lyrics of the half spoken "Conversation With The Bottle", of "Jesse's Back In Town" or "Slim Jam".

New Orleans, birth place of jazz, is not forgotten through the version of "St. James Infirmary" somewhere reminding Armstrong, and the old New Orleans brass band style of "Wretch's Lament".

Other highlights of the album  : the wobbly rhythm of "Uptown At Minton's", the moving melancholy "Nobody", "Baby's Got The Blues" and "Pray For Rain", two nice examples of cool groovy jazz, or "Blues In The Night", a cool jumping and swinging jazz, with the repetitive riffs of the horns suddenly disrupted by the guitar bursting in.

Finally, a word of appreciation of Blue's backing musicians, especially Bruce Gilbert (also excellent on piano) and Ed Croft on saxophone, and Sweetlips Mysterioso (!) on trumpet, who largely contribute to the definite jazz color of the album, but also Todd Hilton and Tom Bishop on bass, and Petey Boyle on drums, all perfect in their tasks.

Is it Buddy Blue's interest in the bottle that killed him three years after this album came out ? I don't know. What I know is that though I'm usually not a big fan of vocal jazz, I had sincere pleasure in listening to him and his band for their cool laid-back sound and swinging style. And for his perfect jazz guitar work.■

His country-rockabilly period

→ Audio

► Live at the Studio Kafe in 1991 (8-track playlist, 31mn): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mKSOprE-cvysKlPsPLyyjm85wEo2-Zluo

► "For The Night" with his country-rock band The Jacks: https://youtu.be/O3EKg_shjgg

→ Video

► Live from Santa Rosa May 14, 1991: https://youtu.be/4px5W8DqlUc

► With The Beat Farmers
→ In San Diego, 1984 (52mn): https://youtu.be/GKbo8aSQs38
→ In Los Angeles, 1985 (55mn): https://youtu.be/JJxCNMGN17g

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Terry "Big T" Williams & Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson - 2005-2007 Meet Me In The Cotton Field

> The album

Two from Clarksdale

It sounds like an informal rehearsal jam by friends sitting down at the bottom end of a blues lounge while the last customers hang around for a last drink before closing time and the barman is wiping the glasses moving to the minimalist band's groove. Three of the album's track were actually recorded at the Red's Lounge in 2007, the others in 2005 at Jimbo Mathus’ Delta Recording studio, both places being in Clarksdale.
Among the legendary "blues towns" of the Mississippi Delta, Clarksdale is certainly the most famous and mythical one. For over a century, since Charley Patton and Robert Johnson, the town has seen a multitude of blues legends haunting its streets and bars. Every big name of the blues passed through there, but some were born and stayed there all their life.

This is the case for Terry "Big T" Williams (1) and Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson. They are or were (Jefferson died in 2009 at only 65) pillars of the Clarkdale's blues circuit, much respected by the numerous blues peers with whom they played : Jelly Roll Kings' Sam Carr, Frank Frost and Big Jack Johnson, Little "Jeno" Tucker, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Willie Foster, James “Super Chikan” Johnson...  But for incomprehensible reasons, they stayed rather ignored out of the Delta. A proof ? Neither have any Wikipedia page yet ! 😉

After the short a-Capella "Meet Me In The Bottom", Jefferson's bass surges up front on "Pocketful Of Blues", soon joined by Williams' raw guitar. On drums Lee Williams ― we couldn't find any indication about any family link with "Big T" ― keeps very discreet in the back for a good reason : he plays on three songs only. The tone is set for the nine following tracks.
Though the duet are veterans of the Clarksdale Delta blues scene, one feels that the Hill Country is not far away : same kind of down-home rough blues with guitar saturated sound and heavy thumping bass style. Williams, who plays electric or slide ("Incarcerated Blues"), and is alone on guitar on five tracks, draws a really great reverb sound out of his instrument, particularly on "Pocketful Of Blues" and on the long version of "Catfish Blues", the highlight of the album along with the acoustic cover of Muddy Water's "Can't Be Satisfied".

                            Ground Zero ►
The ultra classic "CC Rider" sounds like new here, in its raw country blues dressing, while the other long track, the heavy slow blues "The Wreck", allows Jefferson to exhibit his vocal talent.
"Let's Go Down To Red's" refers of course to Red's Lounge, one of the competitors of actor Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero blues bar & restaurant. It's one of the few songs where the trio plays together. As for the title song, "Meet Me In The Cotton Field", written and sung by Jefferson over Williams' acoustic guitar work, it sounds rather autobiographical.

The album ends as it began, with a roots a-appellate by Jefferson on "Blues Is Like The River".
Both of them sing alternatively, with plain simplicity and soul, with almost the same vocal texture, reminding John Lee Hooker at some moments, particularly Williams.
This apparently "minor" album contains much more than it seems at first. It's a testimony of the blues as it is played in Clarksdale by two guys who fell in it when still kids and for whom blues is more than music, a way of life. ■


(1) "Big T", who was mentored when still young by Johnnie Billington, felt he should take his part in educating young people in return : for many years he taught blues to local kids in Clarksdale, convinced that this was one of the ways the kids could build a better future for themselves. More recently, he moved to Memphis, where he lives with his wive and children.

Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson
► Biography : https://www.arts.ms.gov/folklife/artist.php?dirname=jefferson_wesley

► "Wesley Jefferson, original Mississippi Bluesman", documentary shot for the Japanese TV NHK in 2005  (20mn ) : https://youtu.be/WGhMDxMgW7E

► With the Wesley Jefferson Southern Soul Band & Mississippi Adam Riggle : https://youtu.be/E0FpHo_ljrM

Terry "Big T" Williams 
► Biography : https://arts.ms.gov/folklife/artist.php?dirname=williams_terry

► Talking about the blues at the Crossroads Cultural Arts Center : https://youtu.be/HpH_2cxP5M8

► At the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, talking of  some of his mentors :
→ Sam Carr : https://youtu.be/Js-voZgvTlw
→ Frank Frost and the Jelly Roll Kings : https://youtu.be/JOOSWVP9s1k
→ Big Jack Johnson and the Jelly Roll Kings : https://youtu.be/8m-6InQ8-g8
► "CC Rider" : https://youtu.be/ROXw4xscTLQ
► "Catfish Blues" : https://youtu.be/BucoxsCGm38

► "I'll Play the Blues for You" at the Hayward/Russell City Blues Festival in 2008 : https://youtu.be/_LOJXk-duQM, and also : https://youtu.be/C0wNYwddK94
► At the Red's Blues Lounge in Clarksdale : https://youtu.be/SidoSoyryZs
► At the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale : https://youtu.be/vFDouhonlhU?list=PLzuBC-Cz3YT1WyBB-ayL90tcnn5EtvPed
► At the Po Monkey's juke joint in Merigold (Mississippi) in 2013 : https://youtu.be/kzs64nLbXG4
► In Memphis in 2019 : https://youtu.be/vMMHpOo-ulk
► "Big Boss Man" with Arthneice "Gas Man" Jones at the Sunflower River Blues Festival in Clarksdale in 2011 : https://youtu.be/5jSDOPFVnkY

Lee Williams
► The drummer taks about Johnnie Billington : https://youtu.be/GcxOMR6anUs

________________________