Biography
Emerging from the rural South, Willie Nix possessed a powerful rhythm and lyrical talent that cast him as a kind of contemporary city chronicler through song. Recordings issued on RPM and Sun, followed by further sides on Chance in Chicago, never lifted him above the status of peripheral figures in the pursuit of blues recognition in Memphis or Chicago, yet the surviving evidence suggests that Willie Nix was the one who most warranted greater achievement.
A native of Memphis, he began his stage career as a tap dancer at age 12 and, during his teenage years in the late ’30s, traveled with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels Shows in the role of a dancing comedian. Throughout the early ’40s he took part in assorted variety shows while also busking in Memphis streets and parks. In 1947 Nix performed with Robert Lockwood, Jr. on a Little Rock, AR radio broadcast and subsequently joined Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Love and Joe Willie Wilkins in the Four Aces, working across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.
He shared Memphis radio broadcasts with B.B. King and Joe Hill Louis, and performed with The Beale Streeters toward the close of the ’40s. His earliest discs were cut in Memphis for RPM in 1951, after which he recorded for the Checker subsidiary of Chess Records in 1952. Early in 1953 Sam Philips contracted him for Sun as “the Memphis Blues Boy,” presenting him as a singing drummer fronting a band; later he cut additional sides for Art Sheridan’s Chance label in Chicago. During the mid ’50s Nix collaborated with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Johnny Shines and Memphis Slim, yet by the decade’s end he had returned to Memphis and served a brief prison term. His health and skills declined through the ’60s and ’70s, during which he drifted from place to place, playing only sporadically, recounting extravagant stories of his past and behaving unpredictably.
Nix achieved no commercial success as a recording artist and never remained with any single label long enough to produce a full album’s worth of material. His performances nonetheless surface on assorted label compilations and stand out for their propulsive rhythm and exceptional verbal ingenuity, particularly the Chance recordings.
A native of Memphis, he began his stage career as a tap dancer at age 12 and, during his teenage years in the late ’30s, traveled with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels Shows in the role of a dancing comedian. Throughout the early ’40s he took part in assorted variety shows while also busking in Memphis streets and parks. In 1947 Nix performed with Robert Lockwood, Jr. on a Little Rock, AR radio broadcast and subsequently joined Sonny Boy Williamson II, Willie Love and Joe Willie Wilkins in the Four Aces, working across Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.
He shared Memphis radio broadcasts with B.B. King and Joe Hill Louis, and performed with The Beale Streeters toward the close of the ’40s. His earliest discs were cut in Memphis for RPM in 1951, after which he recorded for the Checker subsidiary of Chess Records in 1952. Early in 1953 Sam Philips contracted him for Sun as “the Memphis Blues Boy,” presenting him as a singing drummer fronting a band; later he cut additional sides for Art Sheridan’s Chance label in Chicago. During the mid ’50s Nix collaborated with Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Johnny Shines and Memphis Slim, yet by the decade’s end he had returned to Memphis and served a brief prison term. His health and skills declined through the ’60s and ’70s, during which he drifted from place to place, playing only sporadically, recounting extravagant stories of his past and behaving unpredictably.
Nix achieved no commercial success as a recording artist and never remained with any single label long enough to produce a full album’s worth of material. His performances nonetheless surface on assorted label compilations and stand out for their propulsive rhythm and exceptional verbal ingenuity, particularly the Chance recordings.
Albums
