Willie Brown (musician): Difference between revisions

Willie Brown
Willie Brown
	Brown's grave at Shepard Church, Prichard, Mississippi
Background information
Birth name	Willie Lee Brown
Born	1899 or August 6, 1900; Shelby, Mississippi or, Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	December 30, 1952 (aged 52/53); Tunica, Mississippi, U.S.
Genres	Delta blues; country blues;
Instrument	Guitar

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Latest revision as of 17:21, 13 September 2024

Willie Lee Brown (1899^[2] or August 6, 1900 – December 30, 1952)^[3] was an American blues guitar player and vocalist. He performed and recorded with other blues musicians, including Son House and Charlie Patton, and influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.^[4]^[5] Brown is considered one of the pioneering musicians of the Delta blues genre.^[3]

Brown worked as a side player, performing mostly with House, Patton, and Johnson.^[6] He recorded six sides for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin in 1930, which were subsequently released on 78-rpm discs. He made three recordings for the Library of Congress in 1941, accompanied by House. In 1952, Brown briefly joined House in Rochester, New York, but soon returned to Tunica, Mississippi, where he died the same year.

Although normally an accompanist, Brown recorded three highly rated solo performances: "M & O Blues", "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" and "Future Blues". He disappeared from the music scene during the 1940s, together with House, and died before the blues revival of the 1960s.

Life and career

He learned to play the guitar as a teenager. He played with such notables as Charley Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson. He was not a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians.^[7] Little is known for certain about the man whom Johnson called "my friend Willie Brown" (in his "Cross Road Blues") and whom Johnson once indicated should be notified in event of his death.

Brown played with Patton on "M & O Blues" and "Future Blues", recorded for Paramount Records in 1930.^[8] Both songs appear on the album Son House & the Great Delta Blues Singers 1928–1930 (Document Records, 1994) and are also included in the JSP box set of Patton's recordings.^[9] At least four other songs Brown recorded for Paramount have never been found.^[10]

There has been speculation and some dispute about whether Brown played backup on "Rowdy Blues", and "Mississippi Bottom Blues", 1929 songs credited to Kid Bailey,^[11] or recorded it himself using the name of Kid Bailey.

The musicologist David Evans reconstructed the early biography of a Willie Brown living in Drew, Mississippi, until 1929. He was married by 1911, when he was 10 or 11(?), to a proficient guitarist named Josie Mills. He is recalled as singing and playing guitar with Patton and others in the neighborhood of Drew.^[12] Informants with conflicting memories led Gayle Dean Wardlow and Steve Calt to conclude that this was a different Willie Brown.^[13] Evans rejected this conclusion, believing that the singing and guitar style of the 1931 recordings is in the tradition of other performers from Drew, such as Patton, Tommy Johnson, Kid Bailey, Howlin' Wolf and artists not commercially recorded.

Alan Lomax, writing in 1993, suggested that the William Brown he recorded in Arkansas in 1942 was the same man as the Paramount artist.^[14] The recording was for a joint project between Fisk University and the Library of Congress documenting the music of Coahoma County, Mississippi, in 1941 and 1942. Writing over fifty years later, Lomax seemed to have forgotten that he had actually recorded Brown the previous summer with Son House, Fiddlin' Joe Martin and Leroy Williams. Brown played second guitar on three performances by the group and recorded one solo, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor". Willie Brown also played "Ragged & Dirty". According to Lomax, after Willie played "Ragged & Dirty" for him, Brown quoted, "That's the blues, that's the Delta blues."^[14]

The later biography is more clear. Brown lived in Robinsonville, Mississippi from 1929 and moved to Lake Cormorant, Mississippi by 1935. He performed occasionally with Charley Patton and continually with Son House until his death.

Brown died of heart disease in Tunica, Mississippi, in 1952.^[1]

Discography

Brown recorded six sides at a 1930 recording session in Grafton, Wisconsin. They were released on three 78-rpm shellac discs, of which only one has been found. Of the three sides known to exist below, all were issued on the 2001 Charley Patton box set.

Paramount 13001: "Grandma Blues" / "Sorry Blues" (no copy has been found)
Paramount 13090: "M & O Blues" / "Future Blues" (only six copies are known)^{[citation needed]}
Paramount 13099: "Window Blues" / "Kicking in My Sleep Blues" (no copy has been found)
Library of Congress recording by Lomax: "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor"

References

^ ^a ^b Doc Rock. "The 50s and Earlier". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
^ ^a ^b Eagle, Bob L. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. ABC-CLIO. p. 187. ISBN 978-0313344244.
^ ^a ^b "The Blues: The Songs and the Artists". PBS. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
^ Grossman, Stefan (2007). Delta Blues Guitar. Alfred Music Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-0739042809.
^ "Robert Johnson Biography". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 61. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
^ Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 58-9. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
^ [1] Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 211. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
^ Sliwicki, Susan (17 January 2011). "Reward offered for Willie Brown's legendary blues records". Antiquetrader.com. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
^ Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
^ Evans, David (1982). Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80300-3.
^ Wardlow, Gayle Dean (1998). Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues. Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-552-5.
^ ^a ^b Lomax, Alan (1993). The Land Where the Blues Began. Methuen. ISBN 9780679404248.

External links

[Dead-1] Doc Rock. "The 50s and Earlier". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved 2015-09-07.

[:0-2] Eagle, Bob L. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. ABC-CLIO. p. 187. ISBN 978-0313344244.

[PBS-3] "The Blues: The Songs and the Artists". PBS. Retrieved 30 March 2014.

[Grossman-4] Grossman, Stefan (2007). Delta Blues Guitar. Alfred Music Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-0739042809.

[5] "Robert Johnson Biography". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2014.

[Russell-6] Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 61. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.

[7] Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 58-9. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.

[8] [1] Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[Russell_2-9] Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 211. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.

[10] Sliwicki, Susan (17 January 2011). "Reward offered for Willie Brown's legendary blues records". Antiquetrader.com. Retrieved 4 February 2019.

[11] Robert Palmer (1981). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.

[12] Evans, David (1982). Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80300-3.

[13] Wardlow, Gayle Dean (1998). Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues. Miller Freeman Books. ISBN 0-87930-552-5.

[Lomax,_Alan_1993-14] Lomax, Alan (1993). The Land Where the Blues Began. Methuen. ISBN 9780679404248.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{short description|American blues guitarist and vocalist (1900–1952)}}
-{{Infobox musical artist | background  = solo_singer| instrument = [[Guitar]]
+{{Infobox musical artist
+| background        = solo_singer
+| instrument        = [[Guitar]]
-| name                = Willie Brown
+| name              = Willie Brown
-| image               = Willie Brown - grave.jpg
+| image             = Willie Brown - grave.jpg
-| image_size          = 250px
+| image_size        = 250px
-| caption             = Brown's grave at Shepard Church, [[Prichard, Mississippi]]
+| caption           = Brown's grave at Shepard Church, [[Prichard, Mississippi]]
-| birth_name          = Willie Lee Brown<ref name="Dead"/>
+| birth_name        = Willie Lee Brown<ref name="Dead"/>
-| birth_date          = {{birth date|1900|8|6}}
+| birth_date        = 1899 or {{birth date|1900|8|6}}
-| birth_place         = [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]], U.S.
+| birth_place       = [[Shelby, Mississippi]]<ref name=":0" /> or, [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]], U.S.
-| death_date          = {{death date and age|1952|12|30|1900|8|6}}
+| death_date        = {{death date|1952|12|30}} (aged 52/53)
-| death_place         = [[Tunica, Mississippi]], U.S.
+| death_place       = [[Tunica, Mississippi]], U.S.
-| genre               = {{flatlist|
+| genre             = {{flatlist|
 *[[Delta blues]]
 *[[country blues]]
 }}
-| years_active        =
-| website             =
 }}
-'''Willie Lee Brown''' (August 6, 1900 &ndash; December 30, 1952)<ref name="PBS">{{cite web | url=https://www.pbs.org/theblues/songsartists/songsbioalpha.html | title=The Blues: The Songs and the Artists | publisher=[[PBS]] | date= | access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref> was an American [[blues]] [[guitar]] player and [[vocalist]]. He performed and recorded with other blues musicians, including [[Son House]] and [[Charlie Patton]], and influenced [[Robert Johnson]] and [[Muddy Waters]].<ref name="Grossman">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykHtup92Er0C | title=Delta Blues Guitar | publisher=[[Alfred Music Publishing]] | author=Grossman, Stefan | year=2007 | page=16 | isbn=978-0739042809}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/robert-johnson/biography | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123043119/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/robert-johnson/biography | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 23, 2011 | title=Robert Johnson Biography | magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] | access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref> Brown is considered one of the pioneering musicians of the [[Delta blues]] genre.<ref name="PBS"/>
+'''Willie Lee Brown''' (1899<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Eagle |first=Bob L. |title=Blues: A Regional Experience |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2013 |isbn=978-0313344244 |pages=187}}</ref> or August 6, 1900 &ndash; December 30, 1952)<ref name="PBS">{{cite web | url=https://www.pbs.org/theblues/songsartists/songsbioalpha.html | title=The Blues: The Songs and the Artists | publisher=[[PBS]] | date= | access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref> was an American [[blues]] [[guitar]] player and [[vocalist]]. He performed and recorded with other blues musicians, including [[Son House]] and [[Charlie Patton]], and influenced [[Robert Johnson]] and [[Muddy Waters]].<ref name="Grossman">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ykHtup92Er0C | title=Delta Blues Guitar | publisher=[[Alfred Music Publishing]] | author=Grossman, Stefan | year=2007 | page=16 | isbn=978-0739042809}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/robert-johnson/biography | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123043119/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/robert-johnson/biography | url-status=dead | archive-date=January 23, 2011 | title=Robert Johnson Biography | magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] | access-date=30 March 2014}}</ref> Brown is considered one of the pioneering musicians of the [[Delta blues]] genre.<ref name="PBS"/>
 Brown worked as a side player, performing mostly with House, Patton, and Johnson.<ref name="Russell">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|location=Dubai|page=61|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref> He recorded six sides for [[Paramount Records]] in [[Grafton, Wisconsin]] in 1930, which were subsequently released on [[78-rpm]] discs. He made three recordings for the [[Library of Congress]] in 1941, accompanied by House. In 1952, Brown briefly joined House in [[Rochester, New York]], but soon returned to [[Tunica, Mississippi]], where he died the same year.
@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 == Life and career ==
-Brown<ref name="Dead"/> was born in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]], in 1900.<ref name="amg">{{cite web|author=Ankeny, Jason |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/willie-brown-mn0000962498/biography |title=Willie Brown: Biography |website=[[AllMusic]] |date=1952-12-30 |access-date=2015-09-07}}</ref> He learned to play the guitar as a teenager. He played with such notables as [[Charlie Patton|Charley Patton]], [[Son House]] and [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]]. He was not a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/58 58-9]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/58}}</ref>  Little is known for certain about the man whom Johnson called "my friend Willie Brown" (in his "[[Cross Road Blues]]") and whom Johnson once indicated should be notified in event of his death.
+He learned to play the guitar as a teenager. He played with such notables as [[Charlie Patton|Charley Patton]], [[Son House]] and [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]]. He was not a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" other musicians.<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/58 58-9]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/58}}</ref>  Little is known for certain about the man whom Johnson called "my friend Willie Brown" (in his "[[Cross Road Blues]]") and whom Johnson once indicated should be notified in event of his death.
-Brown played with Patton on "M & O Blues" and "Future Blues", recorded for [[Paramount Records]] in 1930.<ref>[http://www.lala.com/#album/937030197521418407] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719034236/http://www.lala.com/#album/937030197521418407 |date=July 19, 2009 }}</ref> Both songs appear on the album ''Son House & the Great Delta Blues Singers 1928–1930'' (Document Records, 1994) and are also included in the JSP box set of Patton's recordings.<ref name="Russell 2">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=[[Carlton Books]]|location=Dubai|page=211|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref> At least four other songs Brown recorded for Paramount have never been found.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques-news/reward_for_willie_brown_record/|title=Reward offered for Willie Brown's legendary blues records|first=Susan|last=Sliwicki|date=17 January 2011|website=Antiquetrader.com|access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref>
+Brown played with Patton on "M & O Blues" and "Future Blues", recorded for [[Paramount Records]] in 1930.<ref>[http://www.lala.com/#album/937030197521418407] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719034236/http://www.lala.com/#album/937030197521418407|date=July 19, 2009}}</ref> Both songs appear on the album ''Son House & the Great Delta Blues Singers 1928–1930'' (Document Records, 1994) and are also included in the JSP box set of Patton's recordings.<ref name="Russell 2">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=[[Carlton Books]]|location=Dubai|page=211|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref> At least four other songs Brown recorded for Paramount have never been found.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques-news/reward_for_willie_brown_record/|title=Reward offered for Willie Brown's legendary blues records|first=Susan|last=Sliwicki|date=17 January 2011|website=Antiquetrader.com|access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref>
-There has been speculation and some dispute about whether Brown played backup on "Rowdy Blues", and "Mississippi Bottom Blues", 1929 songs credited to [[Kid Bailey]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/108 108]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/108}}</ref> or recorded it himself using the name of Kid Bailey.
+There has been speculation and some dispute about whether Brown played backup on "Rowdy Blues", and "Mississippi Bottom Blues", 1929 songs credited to [[Kid Bailey]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981|authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/108 108]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/108}}</ref> or recorded it himself using the name of Kid Bailey.
 The musicologist [[David Evans (musicologist)|David Evans]] reconstructed the early biography of a Willie Brown living in [[Drew, Mississippi]], until 1929. He was married by 1911, when he was 10 or 11(?), to a proficient guitarist named Josie Mills. He is recalled as singing and playing guitar with Patton and others in the neighborhood of Drew.<ref>Evans, David (1982). ''Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues''. Da Capo. {{ISBN|0-306-80300-3}}.</ref> Informants with conflicting memories led [[Gayle Dean Wardlow]] and Steve Calt to conclude that this was a different Willie Brown.<ref>Wardlow, Gayle Dean (1998). ''Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues.'' Miller Freeman Books. {{ISBN|0-87930-552-5}}.</ref> Evans rejected this conclusion, believing that the singing and guitar style of the 1931 recordings is in the tradition of other performers from Drew, such as Patton, [[Tommy Johnson (blues musician)|Tommy Johnson]], Kid Bailey, [[Howlin' Wolf]] and artists not commercially recorded.
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 The later biography is more clear. Brown lived in [[Robinsonville, Mississippi]] from 1929 and moved to [[Lake Cormorant, Mississippi]] by 1935. He performed occasionally with Charley Patton and continually with Son House until his death.
-Brown died of [[heart disease]] in [[Tunica, Mississippi]], in 1952, at the age of 52.<ref name="Dead">{{cite web|author=Doc Rock |url=http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1950.html |title=The 50s and Earlier |website=TheDeadRockStarsClub.com |date= |access-date=2015-09-07}}</ref>
+Brown died of [[heart disease]] in [[Tunica, Mississippi]], in 1952.<ref name="Dead">{{cite web|author=Doc Rock |url=http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1950.html |title=The 50s and Earlier |website=TheDeadRockStarsClub.com |date= |access-date=2015-09-07}}</ref>
 ==Discography==
-Brown recorded six sides at a 1930 recording session in Grafton, Wisconsin. They were released on three 78-rpm shellac discs, of which only one has been found.
+Brown recorded six sides at a 1930 recording session in Grafton, Wisconsin. They were released on three 78-rpm shellac discs, of which only one has been found. Of the three sides known to exist below, all were issued on [[Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton|the 2001 Charley Patton box set]].
 * Paramount 13001: "Grandma Blues" / "Sorry Blues" (no copy has been found)
 * Paramount 13090: "M & O Blues" / "Future Blues" (only six copies are known){{Citation needed|date=July 2009}}
@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 ==External links==
-* [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MUSIC/blues/crb.html "Cross Road Blues" lyrics]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/19971108044322/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MUSIC/blues/crb.html "Cross Road Blues" lyrics]
-*{{Worldcat id|lccn-no96-20800}}
 * [http://www.wirz.de/music/brownwil.htm Illustrated Willie Brown discography]
 * [https://bluesway.gr/forum/topic/147  Willie Brown biography]
@@ Line 73: / Line 72: @@
 [[Category:Paramount Records artists]]
 [[Category:20th-century African-American male singers]]
+[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
+[[Category:20th-century American singers]]
 [[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
 [[Category:Guitarists from Mississippi]]

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Latest revision as of 17:21, 13 September 2024

Life and career

Discography

See also

References

External links