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The great Mississippi bluesman Big Joe Williams grew up on my grandfather's farm in Crawford,Mississippi. He had long left by the time I came along. However my father told me about him.
I tried to find him in Chicago in 1965 but didn't know then where to look.
In 1967 I wrote him a letter and he answered back. I suspect he got his cousin May Liza to write the letter. See the letter above.
It was not until 1975 when we went to Crawford for a funeral that I finally met him. See other posts on my blog for photos from that visit.
Then later I went with him and George Cummings of Dr. Hook and the Medicine show fame to Muscle Shoals where they did some recording together. See my blog for my recollection of that trip.
As you can see in his letter above he mentions The Jazz Record Mart in Chicago at 7 West Grand. He told me that often Bob Koester let him live in that place while he did recordings for Koester's Delmark Records. Or maybe he got his mail there and lived at the Delmark Records address.
I don't have a picture of it but I understand that one of Big Joe Williams' famous nine string guitars is kept now in a case under glass at The Jazz Record Mart in Chicago.
Type in the name Big Joe Williams in the search box at the top of the page to read all of my former posts about this great Mississippi Blues Man. He wrote the song Baby Please Don't Go.
