Big Joe Williams And Joe B. Stewart And The 60 Pound Watermelon In Crawford Mississippi August 1978

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Someone asked why there are so many good musicans from Mississippi.
A local wit replied, "There must be something in the water...melon.

A Visit To The Stewart Cemetery Outside Crawford Mississippi In June Of 2015

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Big Joe Williams - Bottle Up and Go

This song Bottle Up and Go is on a Big Joe Williams album titled Big Joe Williams at  Folk City. Recorded in 1962. It was the first Big Joe Williams record I ever bought. He grew up on my grandfather's farm in Crawford Mississippi. He left in the 1920s or 1930s and only came back for visits until he came home for good around 1970. I finally met him in 1975. I went with him and George Cummings( of Dr. Hook and The MedicineShow fame ) to Muscle Shoals in 1978 where they recorded together. I have many more posts on this blog about Big Joe Williams and also George Cummings. Look for them. See list over on the right hand side of this page.

If you go to youtube from this video you will find many more Big Joe songs. Bottle Up and Go is one of my favorites.

 

http://mpbonline.org/mississippiartshour/big_joe_williams_blues/

Legendary Big Joe Williams Of Crawford Mississippi

3B35%3B50PM.jpg">


Click and double click on the pictures above to enlarge them.
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.