Big Joe Williams (USA)

Joseph Lee "Big Joe" Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over four decades, he recorded the songs "Baby Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Peach Orchard Mama", among many others, for various record labels, including Bluebird, Delmark, Okeh, Prestige and Vocalion. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.
The blues historian Barry Lee Pearson (Sounds Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story, Virginia Piedmont Blues) described Williams's performance:When I saw him playing at Mike Bloomfield's "blues night" at the Fickle Pickle, Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself. The total effect of this incredible apparatus produced the most buzzing, sizzling, African-sounding music I have ever heard.

1958

Delmark 602/ 12 tr./ 38:54 min.

 1961

Delmark 604/ 12 tr./ 38:52 min.

 1968

Delmark 609/ 15 tr./ 50:40 min.

 1971

Delmark 627/ 10 tr./ 34:22 min.

 1994

Testament CD 5013/ 21 tr./ 57:12 min. 

 1995

Orbis NC36/ 16 tr./ 47:47 min.

2003

Delmark 767/ 20 tr./ 61:54 min.

2014

Fuel2000 62014-2CD/ 30 tr./ 83:40 min.