Jimmy Lee Williams

Born in 1925 in Polan within Worth County, Georgia, folk-blues guitarist Jimmy Lee Williams remained in that locale for his entire existence while earning his living as a farmer raising soybeans, peanuts, and watermelons. He picked up the guitar in 1941 and soon devoted weekends to performing at all-night frolics held in local juke joints. His approach featured a gritty electric guitar tone, frequent humming alongside his vocals, and, for a period, a rack-mounted harmonica. Musicologist George Mitchell captured Williams during two sessions held in Polan in 1977 and 1982, after which 13 of those tracks appeared on the LP Rock On Away from Here. The identical recordings, described as rough, ragged, and perfectly charming, later surfaced on CD in 2004 as Hoot Your Belly through the Fat Possum label. Although Williams passed away in the early 1990s, reviewers who encountered Hoot Your Belly often presumed he remained alive and, citing his birth year, placed his age at 79, thereby crediting the bluesman with an extra decade of activity he was in fact unable to experience.