Willie Wright

An obscure presence on the soul circuit of the seventies, Willie Wright sang and composed throughout a career defined by scant visibility, only later to acquire a formidable standing among collectors drawn to his infrequently pressed independent releases. He launched his professional path in New York City performing with doo wop ensembles, then relocated to Boston late in the sixties while that city’s countercultural community expanded. There he worked as a working soul vocalist devoted chiefly to covers, though he sometimes supplied his own songs. In the opening years of the seventies he cut Lack of Education for his self-founded Hotel Records label, writing only the title number while filling the remainder with interpretations of other artists’ material. He also put out a single that paired his version of Curtis Mayfield’s “Right on for the Darkness” with his own composition “Africa.” In 1976 he moved to Nantucket, Massachusetts, and performed at clubs serving summer visitors. After the season ended he remained, and the resulting lull in bookings gave him time to write additional material. He returned to New York City in 1977 to record his second album, drawing on songs composed during the winter of 1976 and 1977. The resulting Telling the Truth offered an introspective survey of Wright’s views on his own life, his relationships with women, and the children he had left behind. Its tone was heightened by economical, closely focused arrangements and by the album’s unadorned production, a constraint imposed by completing the sessions in a single day. He again handled release himself; copies circulated mainly through sales at his performances and attracted little notice. Decades afterward, however, soul collectors located the “Right on for the Darkness” single, prompting fresh interest in his catalog. In 2011 The Numero Group issued a new edition of Telling the Truth that added both sides of the single and the track “Lack of Education” as bonus material. Wright died in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 4, 2020.