Biography
Although Willie King has only recently reached listeners across the country, the Alabama blues performer distinguishes himself from many contemporaries by weaving current events and political themes into his compositions. Protest material has in fact long formed part of the blues, and his debut for Rooster Blues, the 2001 release Freedom Creek recorded with the Liberators, begins with “Second Coming,” a meditation on the enduring power of the spirit that references civil-rights figures John Brown and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Additional socially engaged tracks on the album are “Pickens County Payback,” “Stand Up and Speak the Truth,” and “Clean Up the Ghetto.” An earlier collection, I Am the Blues, appeared in 1999 under the auspices of the Rural Members Association, a collective to which he belongs.
Born in Prairie Point, Mississippi, on March 8, 1943, King was raised, along with his siblings, by grandparents and neighboring sharecroppers after his parents separated when he was two. Music filled the home; his grandfather favored both gospel and blues. As a boy King fashioned a didley-bo by stretching bailing wire on a tree in the yard, later advancing to guitar after plantation owner W.P. Morgan presented him with an acoustic Gibson on his thirteenth birthday. He settled the sixty-dollar cost by tending cattle each morning, then made his first paid appearance at a Mississippi house party, performing through the night for two dollars. He broadened his repertoire to encompass material by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker.
King relocated to Chicago in 1967, spending a year in search of steady employment on the city’s South and West Sides before returning to Old Memphis, Alabama, where he worked as a traveling salesman. Conversations with impoverished rural residents along his route drew him into civil-rights work and the activities of the left-leaning Highlander Center. During the 1970s he composed blues pieces influenced by the activist performances of Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, the Freedom Singers, and Pete Seeger. He refers to these pieces as “struggling songs,” intended to inform audiences; as he notes in the Freedom Creek biography, “Through the music, I could reach more people, get them to listen.”
In 1987 Rooster Blues founder Jim O’Neal encountered King and the Liberators at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama, and was struck by the guitarist’s juke-joint style, unvarnished vocals, and pointed lyrics. The two remained in contact over the following thirteen years, and once O’Neal moved the label from Chicago to Memphis they recorded Freedom Creek, issued in October 2000 at Bettie’s Place in Prairie Point. The album’s reception prompted a 2002 successor, Living in a New World, whose liner notes were contributed by poet, blues scholar, political activist, and former MC5 manager John Sinclair, then residing in New Orleans.
Should fairness prevail, the steady output of this forceful singer, guitarist, and writer ought to receive continued documentation. King and the Liberators sustain a longstanding lineage of social engagement within the blues, and their unadorned yet layered message songs deserve wider exposure at events such as the Chicago Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and other prominent international gatherings.
Born in Prairie Point, Mississippi, on March 8, 1943, King was raised, along with his siblings, by grandparents and neighboring sharecroppers after his parents separated when he was two. Music filled the home; his grandfather favored both gospel and blues. As a boy King fashioned a didley-bo by stretching bailing wire on a tree in the yard, later advancing to guitar after plantation owner W.P. Morgan presented him with an acoustic Gibson on his thirteenth birthday. He settled the sixty-dollar cost by tending cattle each morning, then made his first paid appearance at a Mississippi house party, performing through the night for two dollars. He broadened his repertoire to encompass material by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker.
King relocated to Chicago in 1967, spending a year in search of steady employment on the city’s South and West Sides before returning to Old Memphis, Alabama, where he worked as a traveling salesman. Conversations with impoverished rural residents along his route drew him into civil-rights work and the activities of the left-leaning Highlander Center. During the 1970s he composed blues pieces influenced by the activist performances of Josh White, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, the Freedom Singers, and Pete Seeger. He refers to these pieces as “struggling songs,” intended to inform audiences; as he notes in the Freedom Creek biography, “Through the music, I could reach more people, get them to listen.”
In 1987 Rooster Blues founder Jim O’Neal encountered King and the Liberators at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama, and was struck by the guitarist’s juke-joint style, unvarnished vocals, and pointed lyrics. The two remained in contact over the following thirteen years, and once O’Neal moved the label from Chicago to Memphis they recorded Freedom Creek, issued in October 2000 at Bettie’s Place in Prairie Point. The album’s reception prompted a 2002 successor, Living in a New World, whose liner notes were contributed by poet, blues scholar, political activist, and former MC5 manager John Sinclair, then residing in New Orleans.
Should fairness prevail, the steady output of this forceful singer, guitarist, and writer ought to receive continued documentation. King and the Liberators sustain a longstanding lineage of social engagement within the blues, and their unadorned yet layered message songs deserve wider exposure at events such as the Chicago Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and other prominent international gatherings.
Albums
