Personnel: Big Joe Williams (vocals, guitar); J.D. Short (guitar, harmonica).
Liner Note Author: Robert G. Koester.
Recording information: Blue Note Record Shop, St. Louis, MO (01/10/1958-02/18/1958).
Big Joe Williams-- not to be confused with the Count Basie vocalist-is one of America's finest artists in the Delta blues tradition. Williams was born in 1903, near Crawford, Mississippi, "on the edge of the Piney Woods," and he was steeped in an itinerant life of performing on the road. PINEY WOODS BLUES is a reissue of a 1960 release, Williams' first for Delmark Records and one of his first LPs after two decades of recording singles.
The songs are mostly originals, including Williams' now-standard blues "Baby, Please Don't Go." Williams accompanies his emotionally raw singing with his trademark nine-string guitar, a homemade modification of a battered 6-string that produces a very distinctive buzzing, percussive sound. On four of the tracks, Williams is joined on harmonica and guitar by his cousin J.D. Short. This is the real thing-authentic Delta blues by one of its creators, at the peak of his talent. PINEY WOODS BLUES belongs in every collection.
