March 18th, 1943: Willie King was born in Prairie Point, Mississippi. His grandparents and local sharecroppers raised King and his siblings after his mother and father separated when he was two. Fortunately, King was raised in a music-filled household, as his grandfather was a fan of both gospel and blues music. A young King made his own didley-bo, a one-stringed instrument, by nailing a bailing wire to a tree in his yard. He began playing that and eventually progressed to guitar, when his plantation owner, W.P. Morgan, brought him his first guitar, an acoustic Gibson, when he was 13 years old. King paid off the $60 price tag for the guitar by working on the plantation and feeding the plantations cows in the morning. He made his professional debut at a house party in Mississippi, playing all night for two dollars. King focused his efforts on learning more tunes and expanded his repertoire to include tunes by Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker. In 1967, King moved to Chicago and spent a year trying to find secure work in that citys south and west sides. He returned to Old Memphis, Alabama, and began working as a salesman, traveling rural roads, peddling his goods, and talking politics with mostly poor, rural Alabama residents. King got involved in the civil rights movement and with the Highlander Center. Throughout the 1970s, King continued to write blues songs inspired by the civil rights activism of performers like Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, the Freedom Singers, and Pete Seeger. King calls his political songs struggling songs, and in reality, they are political tunes used to educate his audiences. As he explains in his biography accompanying Freedom Creek, Through the music, I could reach more people, get them to listen. In 1987, Rooster Blues founder Jim ONeal was blown away by King and his band at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama. ONeal was attracted to Kings juke-joint guitar stylings, raw vocals, and political lyrics. The pair kept in touch during the next 13 years, and when ONeal relocated his label to Memphis from Chicago, the two hooked up to record Freedom Creek, which was released in October 2000. Kings Freedom Creek album was recorded on location at Betties Place in Prairie Point. The success of the album brought about a follow-up, Living in a New World, released in 2002, with liner notes penned by poet, blues scholar, political activist, and former MC5 manager John Sinclair, who was then based in New Orleans. King died in Old Memphis, Alabama on March 8th, 2009.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 09:00:00 +0000
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