What happened when I saw the Blues legend Big Joe Williams live? Three stories.

Описание: In this video I share my not so important, but to the point „What is Blues about“-experience collected in three Big Joe’ Williams concerts in Hamburg in the early 1970ies.
I had the great pleasure – or as seen today - honor to have seen Big Joe Williams (* October 16, 1903 in Crawford, Mississippi, USA; † December 17, 1982 in Macon, Mississippi), the great Blues singer and only 9-string guitar player, live three times:

1. March 14, 1972 at the Musikhalle (name today: Laeiszhalle) in Hamburg, Germany. He was part of the „1972 American Folk and Blues“ Festival program amongst Robert Pete Williams, Memphis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, Edward Taylor and others.
2. March 19, 1973 at the Malersaal in Hamburg, Germany
3. March 28 or 29, 1977 at the Logo, Hamburg, Germany

I have seen many concerts from many artists, but there was hardly anybody with such an intensive presence - that somehow changed my live. The feelings he expressed with his songs, his deep and powerful voice, but also his unique style of playing his unique 9-string acoustic guitar were extremely deep, and heart and mind winning.
His guitar for a long while in the 1960 and 1970ies was a cheap Sovereign model from Sears warehouse – no expensive Martin or Gibson. He had added himself three more strings: he doubled the a, b and e strings to give the guitar more volume and a special sound. Usually, he tuned it to Open G and used a capo on the second fret, making it Open A. And he added a pickup that he simple fixed with Scotch tape, and often used a bottleneck.

The sound of that guitar was absolutely incredible and so unique! You can hear this on the many recordings that exist. For beginners, I would suggest to start with the CD „Big Joe Williams - Nine String Guitar Blues“, recorded in July 1961. It has a better recording quality than many of the early recordings from the 1930ies, not saying that the music is better, but good for a start.

Fortunately, I also got a copy of the German version of Michael Bloomfield’s little booklet „Me and Big Joe“ published in 1980 (German title: „Unterwegs mit Big Joe“). This booklet is a very good reading and introduction to the background of Big Joe’s Blues life and resulting music. Both went so close together in his case – very special and unbelievable!

And it goes on: Don’t miss to watch Ry Cooder’s story about his first record from Big Joe and his new version of “Sloppy Drum”, he recorded in 2020, played on his own self-built 9-string guitar. It is here on Youtube:    • Ry Cooder on Big Joe Williams