BIG JOE WILLIAMS - Low Down Dirty Shame

BIG JOE WILLIAMS - Low Down Dirty Shame.

Big Joe Williams was born Joseph Lee Williams on October 16th 1903. He died December 17th 1982.

Born in Crawford, Mississippi, Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue and recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for the 'Okeh' label.

In 1934 he was in St. Louis, Missouri, where he met record producer Lester Melrose who signed him to a recording contract with Bluebird Records in 1935. He stayed with Bluebird for ten years, recording such blues hits as "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1935) and "Crawlin' King Snake" (1941), both songs later covered by many other performers. He also recorded with other blues singers, including Sonny Boy Williamson I, Robert Nighthawk and Peetie Wheatstraw.

Williams remained a noted blues artist in the 1950s and 1960s, with his guitar style and vocals becoming popular with folk-blues fans. He recorded for the Trumpet, Delmark, Prestige and Vocalion labels, among others. He became a regular on the concert and coffeehouse circuits, touring Europe and Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and performing at major U.S. festivals.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• big
• joe
• williams
• low
• down
• dirty
• shame

[faunoram]

the tone of the guitar is so raw!!!!

this is harder than most rock music this days

thanks!!

[frenzexperiment]

if one plays a nine strings guitar has to be a special one

[busessuck1]

@mickyhikes I know this question is a year old but yeah Big Joe recorded songs bout the death of presidents and general political events - quite a few musicians like him did so

there's a whole album about the death of JFK recorded in the week he died (it's called Can't Keep From Crying)

[JandritoBlues]

@davidkahan That's not the bass string. It is a rod mounted to the strings be behind the bridge. That kind of pickup was adjustable so you could move it back and forth -- either closer to the neck or closer to the bridge. This design was for arch top guitars with no central sound hole.

[rmurbach1961]

This is the Blues, raw and soulful, the way it was meant to be.

[davidkahan]

@1:01 impressive : "9th" string blocked behind the pickup - so this, in fact, makes it sound like a 5 string/tone open tuned guitar - i guess

[Bluesshoes2]

@panbread89 Coz even the blues got a soul. .

[awfulguitarplucker]

at those times,Blues guitar still had some remnants ofthe feeling of an actually "ethnic" instruments,bearing that sense of "tribally crafted instrument" or "traditional ,local instrument" who,nowadays,only instruments like Koto or Shamisen,or Oud,or Sitar barely seem to mantain....i know i dont eplained myself out quite correctly, but this is the feel THAT blues playin give me...

[panbread89]

. Who said you need a fancy guitar to play music, all you need is a working guitar and some heart and soul.

[mickyhikes]

Son House does a similar "Low Down Dirty Shame" on Youtube, but it's a personal love song, not political like this one. Still wondering when it was recorded.

[mickyhikes]

Listen to the words! This is actually a song about the killing of Martin Luther King. Does anybody know when it was recorded, and are there other versions? Did BJW write it?

[foathkent]

pretty fkn sexy guitar it would prolli be worth a pretty penny