Little Freddie King

Like pianist Henry Gray, the New Orleans guitarist, singer, and songwriter Little Freddie King holds a similarly respected position among the city’s senior musicians. Few performers of comparable age maintain such a busy schedule or bring the same level of energy and intensity to the stage.

Now in his seventies, King follows the example of his octogenarian friend Henry Gray by remaining active through constant touring, recording sessions, and frequent local performances across the Crescent City. One longstanding commitment is his monthly residency at BJ’s Lounge in the Lower Ninth Ward. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the agile musician pedaled his bicycle through rising floodwaters to reach safety.

Born Fread E. Martin in 1940 in McComb, Mississippi—the same birthplace that produced Ellis McDaniel, later known as Bo Diddley, and Omar Kent Dykes—King first learned guitar from his father, Jesse James Martin. In the mid-1950s he boarded a train for New Orleans, where he absorbed lessons from Polka Dot Slim and “Boogie Bill” Webb while also sharing bills with John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley. He later played bass behind the Texas guitarist Freddie King; because their styles were frequently likened to one another, Martin adopted the name Little Freddie King. His cousin, the pioneering bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins, offered another direct link to earlier traditions.

Although an unreleased mid-1960s session took place in New Orleans, King’s first issued recording arrived in 1970 with the nine-song LP Rock and Roll Blues on the local Ahura Mazda label. The raw, gut-bucket performances, supported by harmonica player John S. “Harmonica” Williams, matched the visceral quality of his later work. After more than three decades away from the studio, he returned in 1997 with Swamp Boogie on Orleans Records, followed by Sing Sang Sung in 2000 on the same imprint. Fat Possum Records issued You Don’t Know What I Know in 2005; subsequent MadeWright releases included Messin’ Around tha House in 2008 and the live album Gotta Walk with da King in February 2010. The latter was captured at the Ninth Annual Thirsty Ear Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and employed contemporary recording techniques to achieve clear separation among instruments and between performers and audience while retaining natural ambient detail, much like several live Jazzfest sets from the 2010s.

Although King has lived in New Orleans since his teenage years, his thumb-picked guitar style and vocal approach remain rooted in the Mississippi Delta sound of his McComb origins.