Elmo Williams, born February 6, 1933, and Hezekiah Early, born October 7, 1934, both came of age near Natchez, Mississippi. Williams served in the army and held jobs as a baker, truck driver, and road-crew member while pursuing music on his own; after his father declined to teach him, he taught himself guitar. Early, as a boy, drummed on pots and pans and blew harp in front of his father’s grocery store, absorbing some instruction from local harmonica master Papa George. By rigging a microphone stand with duct tape, Early managed to handle drums and harp simultaneously, which led him to assemble Hezekiah and the House Rockers. He also appeared on the soundtrack of the 1979 Muhammad Ali television film Freedom Road. The two musicians performed often at the storied Big Haney’s bar on the opposite bank of the river in Ferriday, Louisiana—the same town that gave rise to Jimmy Swaggart, Mickey Gilley, and Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1997 they cut the single “For the Love of Jesus-Chapter 1” for Sympathy for the Record Industry and issued the album Takes One to Know One on Fat Possum. Their loud, brash, aggressive sound attracted punks and indie rockers alongside more daring blues listeners.
