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Biography
for|the Bob Dylan song|Blind Willie McTell (song)Infobox musical artist | | name = Blind Willie McTell| image = Blind Willie McTell LOC.jpg| caption = McTell recording for John Lomax in an Atlanta hotel room, November 1940. Photograph by the archivist's wife, Ruby Lomax .| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name = William Samuel McTier| alias = Blind Sammie, Georgia Bill, Hot Shot Willie, Blind Willie, Barrelhouse Sammy, Pig & Whistle Red, Blind Doogie, Red Hot Willie Glaze, Red Hot Willie| birth_date = birth date|1898|5|5|mf=y| birth_place = Thomson, Georgia|Thomson , Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia , United States|U.S. | death_date = death date and age|mf=yes|1959|8|19|1898|5|5| death_place = Milledgeville, Georgia|Milledgeville , Georgia, U.S.| origin = Statesboro, Georgia|Statesboro , Georgia, U.S.| instrument = Singing|Vocals , guitar , harmonica , accordian , kazoo , violin | genre = Country blues , Piedmont blues , ragtime , Delta blues , gospel music|gospel | occupation = Musician , songwriter , songster , Accompaniment|accompanist , preacher | years_active = 1927& ndash;1956| label = Victor Records|Victor , Columbia Records|Columbia , Okeh Records|Okeh , Vocalion Records|Vocalion , Decca Records|Decca , Atlantic Records|Atlantic , Regal Records (1946)|Regal | associated_acts = Curley Weaver , Kate McTell | website =| notable_instruments = Stella (guitar)|Stella Jumbo Twelve-String , Stella Grand Concert Twelve-String, Stella Long Scale Grand Concert Twelve-String, Harmony Company|Harmony Twelve-String , Harmony-Stella 922Harpe, Neil: http://www.stellaguitars.com/Mctell_guitars.htm Blind Willie's Guitars. Stella Guitars & Other Oscar Schmidt Instruments. Retrieved 19 July 2011.Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959), was an influential Piedmont blues|Piedmont and ragtime blues singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues, although, unlike his contemporaries, he used exclusively a twelve-string guitar . As well as this, McTell was an adept Slide (guitar)|slide guitarist , unusual among many ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor , differed greatly from many of the harsher and more expressive voice types employed by Delta blues|Delta bluesmen such as Charlie Patton . McTell embodied a variety of musical styles, including blues , ragtime , Gospel music|religious music , and hokum .
Born Blindness|blind in the town of Thomson, Georgia , McTell learned how to play the guitar during his teens. He soon became a street performer around several Georgia cities, namely Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta ; and first recorded in 1927 for Victor Records . Although he never produced a major hit record , McTell's recording career was prolific, recording for different labels under different names all throughout the 1920s and 30s, often with other people. In 1940, he was recorded by John Lomax for the Library of Congress 's folk song archive. He would remain active throughout the 1940s and 50s, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime partner Curley Weaver . Twice more he recorded professionally. McTell's last recordings originated during an impromptu session recorded by Atlanta record store owner Edward Rhodes in 1956; these were released posthumously. McTell would die three years later after suffering for years from diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his mainly failed releases, McTell was one of the few archaic blues musicians that would live to actively play and record during the 1940s and 50s (although, McTell never lived to be "rediscovered" during the imminent American folk music revival , where many other bluesmen would be rediscovered and given a chance to record).
McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists, including The Allman Brothers Band , who famously covered McTell's " Statesboro Blues ", and Bob Dylan , who paid tribute to McTell in his 1983 song " Blind Willie McTell (song)|Blind Willie McTell ". Other artists include Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal , Alvin Youngblood Hart , The White Stripes , and Chris Smither .
Biography
Born William Samuel McTier Conner, Patrick. " http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sounds/piedmontblues/mctell.html Blind Willie McTell". East Coast Piedmont Blues . University of North Carolina. Retrieved 2011-06-30. in Thomson, Georgia|Thomson , Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia , Blindness|blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood but became an adept reader of Braille . He showed proficiency in music from an early age, first playing harmonica and accordion and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.Jacobs, Hal. " http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp? id=h-875 Blind Willie McTell". The New Georgia Encyclopedia . 2009-11-03. Retrieved 2011-06-30. Born into a musical family, both of his parents and an uncle played guitar; he is also a relation of bluesman and gospel pioneer, Thomas A. Dorsey . His father left the family when McTell was still young, and when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering busking|busker . He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta .Justin Green - Musical Legends (ISBN 0-86719-587-8)
In the years before World War II , he traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under many different names, including Blind Willie McTell (Victor and Decca), Blind Sammie (Columbia), Georgia Bill (Okeh), Hot Shot Willie (Victor), Blind Willie (Vocalion and Bluebird), Barrelhouse Sammie (Atlantic), and Pig & Whistle Red (Regal).The "Pig 'n Whistle" appellation was a reference to a chain of Atlanta Bar-B-Que restaurants, one of which was located on the south side of East Ponce de Leon between Boulevard and Moreland Avenue. Blind Willie frequently played for tips in the parking lot of this location, which later became the Krispy Kreme. He was also known to play behind the nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. His style was singular: a form of country blues bridging the gap between the raw blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more refined east coast "Piedmont" sound. He took on the less common and more unwieldy 12-string guitar because of its volume. The style is well documented on John Lomax 's 1940 recordings of McTell for the Library of Congress . McTell earned $10 from these sessions, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011.
In 1934, he married Ruthy Kate Williams (now better known as Kate McTell ). http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/mctell.html She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta and him working around Atlanta.
Postwar, he recorded for Atlantic Records and Regal Records (1946)|Regal Records in 1949, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta, but his career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes and alcoholism.
In 1956, an Atlanta record store manager, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him with a bottle of corn liquor into his store, where he captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were released posthumously on Prestige/ Bluesville Records as Last Session .cite web |url= http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/mctell.html |title=Blind Willie McTell |publisher=bluesnet |accessdate=2006-11-17
McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia , of a stroke in 1959. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. A fan paid to have a gravestone erected on his resting place. The name given on his gravestone is Eddie McTier.Hal Jacobs, Decatur. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp? id=h-875 New Georgia Encyclopedia: "Blind Willie" McTell (1898-1959). New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
He was inducted into the Blues Foundation 's Blues Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame in 1981, http://www.blues.org/halloffame/inductees.php4? YearId=24 Blues Foundation :: Inductees and into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1990Reference necessary|date=June 2011.
Influence
One of McTell's most famous songs, " Statesboro Blues ," was frequently covered by The Allman Brothers Band and is considered one of their earliest signature songsCitation needed|date=April 2011. A short list of some of the artists who also perform it includes Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal , David Bromberg , The Devil Makes Three (band)|The Devil Makes Three and Ralph McTell , who changed his name on account of liking the song.Hockenhull, Chris. "Streets of London: The Official Biography of Ralph McTell", p. 40. Northdown, 1997. ISBN 1-900711-02-8. Ry Cooder covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, Paradise and Lunch . Jack White (musician)|Jack White of The White Stripes considers McTell an influence, as their 2000 album De Stijl (album)|De Stijl was dedicated to him and featured a cover of his song "Southern Can Mama". The White Stripes also covered McTell's " Lord, Send Me an Angel ", releasing it as a single in 2000.
Bob Dylan has paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions: Firstly, in his 1965 song " Highway 61 Revisited ", the second verse begins with "Georgia Sam he had a bloody nose", referring to one of Blind Willie McTell's many recording names; later in his song " Blind Willie McTell (song)|Blind Willie McTell ", recorded in 1983 but released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 ; then with covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong .;In his sleeve notes for World Gone Wrong , Dylan wrote: "'Broke Down Engine' is a Blind Willie McTell masterpiece... it's about Ambiguity, the fortunes of the privileged elite, flood control — watching the red dawn not bothering to dress.(sic)' also, in his song "Po'Boy", on 2001's " Love & Theft " , which contains the lyric, "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".Kill it Kid, Last Session, Bluesville BV 1040, Released 1962
A blues bar in Atlanta is named after McTell and regularly features blues musicians and bandsCitation needed|date=April 2011. The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia. http://www.blindwilliesblues.com/ Blindwillieblues.com A new stage production about Blind Willie McTell will premier at the Averritt Arts Center in Willie's hometown of Statesboro, Georgia, in the summer of 2011. The show is entitled "Blind Willie: The Musical"Citation needed|date=April 2011.
http://www.archive.org/details/Blind_Willie_Mctell-Statesboro "Statesboro Blues" MP3 file on the Internet Archive
http://www.davidfulmer.com David Fulmer, producer "Blind Willie's Blues" Documentary film, 1996
http://www.davidfulmer.com/DCBPraise.html "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues" Novel by David Fulmer featuring McTell as a character
http://www.thegeneralist.co.uk/audio/michael.gray.2007.07.25.mp3 John May interviews biographer Michael Gray (author)|Michael Gray
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/retracing_blind_willie_s_blues/Content? oid=1095308 Review of Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray
Persondata | NAME = Mactell, Blind Willie | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH = May 5, 1898 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Thomson, Georgia|Thomson , Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia , United States | DATE OF DEATH = August 19, 1959 | PLACE OF DEATH = Milledgeville, Georgia|Milledgeville , Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia , United States DEFAULTSORT:Mactell, Blind Willie Category:Acoustic blues musicians Category:Country blues musicians Category:Songster musicians Category:Piedmont blues musicians Category:East Coast blues musicians Category:American blues singers Category:American blues guitarists Category:American blues singer-songwriters Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from McDuffie County, Georgia Category:African American musicians Category:African American singers Category:African American songwriters Category:Blind musicians Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Blind bluesmen Category:1898 births Category:1959 deaths Category:Ragtime composers
