Willie Brown (musician)

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Willie Brown
Brown's grave at Shepard Church, Prichard, Mississippi
Brown's grave at Shepard Church, Prichard, Mississippi
Background information
Birth nameWillie Lee Brown[1]
Born1899 or (1900-08-06)August 6, 1900
Shelby, Mississippi[2] or, Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.
Died(1952-12-30)December 30, 1952 (aged 52/53)
Tunica, Mississippi, U.S.
Genres
InstrumentGuitar

Willie Lee Brown (1899

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.

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

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

Tommy Johnson, Kid Bailey, Howlin' Wolf
and artists not commercially recorded.

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"

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Doc Rock. "The 50s and Earlier". TheDeadRockStarsClub.com. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0313344244
    .
  3. ^ a b "The Blues: The Songs and the Artists". PBS. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  4. ISBN 978-0739042809
    .
  5. ^ "Robert Johnson Biography". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ISBN 1-85868-255-X
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6
    .
  8. ^ [1] Archived July 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  9. 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. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6
    .
  12. ISBN 0-306-80300-3
    .
  13. ISBN 0-87930-552-5
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 9780679404248
    .
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