To be honest—full disclosure—I only first heard the name Big Joe Williams in the winter of 2010-11…can you even believe it!? I found him through one of my random image searches—something like: worn, or maybe rusty, clang …maybe something more direct like custom guitar… But, those details aren't important. What is important, is finding a picture of one of Big Joe's 9-string guitars—looking only slightly more playable than the image above. More exciting: this guitar was a hop-skip-jump and several blocks walk from my office over to the Jazz Record Mart! I immediately walked over, stared at it and bought a CD (these are weird little shiny disks).
I don't know what it is about certain sounds that just hit you right in the gut and stick with you… at 11 it was Aerosmith, at 13 it was Morphine (which has held strong for the last 18 years), at 19 it was Tom Waits, and now it's Big Joe. I mean, that's only 4 bands/musicians over 20 years. Granted, I listen to and really enjoy loads of stuff, but there's only a few things that really hit me where I live—is it the same for everyone?
Here's a video of Big Joe:
Comments