Biography
Guitarist Willie Ward put out multiple memorable singles under assorted pseudonyms throughout the late 1950s. Born Ward Darby in Bluefield, WV, during the late 1930s, he displayed an innate command of the guitar from childhood onward, and by age 16 he had already built a local reputation performing country & western material. A few years afterward, when rock & roll arrived, he adapted without difficulty, working his strings in the T-Bone Walker-cum-Chuck Berry manner and showing equal facility with the new style. He spent a period under contract to King Records in Pittsburgh before moving to Joe Averbach’s Fee Bee label, where his debut single appeared on the subsidiary Star Records in the summer of 1958. Credited to the Guitar Twins and coupling “Come Walk with Me” with “Emotions,” that release featured Ward Darby alongside fellow guitarist Jimmy Robinette. The following month he issued “Iggy Joe,” credited to Willie Ward and supported by Chuck Jackson and the Five Playboys plus saxophone from Sam “The Man” Taylor. Ward concluded his association with Fee Bee via the instrumentals “Safari” and “WHAM-O,” the former of which reached the national charts and received simultaneous distribution on Dot Records. Tracking his output is further complicated, beyond the sessions he contributed to for other artists, by the shifting attributions under which the records appeared—some as Willie Ward, others as Ward Darby (including “Ward Darby & the Raves”), and still others as Willie Ward Darby.
Singles
