Detroit Junior

Emery Williams Jr. stands as a direct connection to the legendary Chicago blues pianists who thrived during the 1940s and 1950s. Born October 26, 1931, in Haynes, AR, he received the performing name Detroit Junior once he launched his own recording career during the 1960s. His early years involved frequent family moves, shifting from Arkansas to Memphis, onward to Pulaski, IL, and finally settling in Flint, MI, where he resided with his grandmother. There he first took up keyboards, practicing on her organa, the hybrid parlor instrument blending organ and piano tones. Before long he was performing in Flint’s demanding clubs and juke joints, then shifted to Chicago in the early 1950s and began working alongside Eddie Boyd, Jimmy Reed, and Eddie Taylor.

His debut 45, “Money Tree” backed with “So Unhappy,” appeared in 1960 and introduced the Detroit Junior moniker; he also cut the Chess Records single “Too Poor” b/w “You Mean Everything to Me.” The album Chicago Urban Blues surfaced on the Blues on Blues label in the early 1970s. Starting in 1969, Williams served for an extended period as Howlin’ Wolf’s pianist, remaining in that role until Wolf’s passing in 1976. Early in the 1980s Alligator Records featured several of his performances on the Living Chicago Blues series. Turn Up the Heat arrived in 1995 on Blue Suit Records, followed by Take Out the Time in 1997 and Live at the Toledo Museum of Art in 2004, both also issued by Blue Suit. A further collection, Blues on the Internet, came out the same year on Delmark Records.