Discovered in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Robert Pete Williams became one of the great blues discoveries during the folk boom of the early '60s. His disregard for conventional patterns, tunings, and structures kept him from a wider audience, but his music remains one of the great, intense treats of the blues.

Williams was born... [+] Read More

Discovered in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Robert Pete Williams became one of the great blues discoveries during the folk boom of the early '60s. His disregard for conventional patterns, tunings, and structures kept him from a wider audience, but his music remains one of the great, intense treats of the blues.

Williams was born in Zachary, Louisiana, the son of sharecropping parents. While he was a child, he worked the fields with his family; he never attended school. Williams didn't begin playing blues until his late teens, when he made himself a guitar out of a cigar box. Playing his homemade guitar, Williams began performing at local parties, dances, and fish fries at night while he worked during the day. Even though he was constantly working, he never made quite enough money to support his family, which caused considerable tension between him and his wife -- according to legend, she burned his guitar one night in a fit of anger.

Despite all of the domestic tension, Williams continued to play throughout the Baton Rouge area, performing at dances and juke joints. In 1956, he shot and killed a man in a local club. Williams claimed the act was in self-defense, but he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was sent to Angola prison, where he served for two years before being discovered by ethnomusicologists Dr. Harry Oster and Richard Allen. The pair recorded Williams performing several of his own songs, which were all about life in prison. Impressed with the guitarist's talents, Oster and Allen pleaded for a pardon for Williams. The pardon was granted in 1959, after he had served a total of three and a half years. For the first five years after he left prison, Williams could only perform in Lousiana, but his recordings -- which appeared on Folk-Lyric, Arhoolie, and Prestige, among other labels -- were popular and he received positive word of mouth reviews.

In 1964, Williams played his first concert outside of Louisiana -- it was a set at the legendary Newport Folk Festival. Williams' performance was enthusiastically received and he began touring the United States, often playing shows with Mississippi Fred McDowell. For the remainder of the '60s and most of the '70s, Robert Pete Williams constantly played concerts and festivals across America, as well a handful of dates in Europe. Along the way, he recorded for a handful of small independent labels, including Fontana and Storyville. Williams slowed down his work schedule in the late '70s, largely due to his old age and declining health. The guitarist died on December 31, 1980, at the age of 66. ~ Cub Koda & Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Another of the many performers briefly illuminated by the spotlight of the folk-blues revival of the 1960s, Louisiana-born country bluesman Herman E. Johnson was the product of a highly religious family environment, a background which heavily informed the spiritual imagery which was a hallmark of his later work as a performer. His early adult... [+] Read More

Another of the many performers briefly illuminated by the spotlight of the folk-blues revival of the 1960s, Louisiana-born country bluesman Herman E. Johnson was the product of a highly religious family environment, a background which heavily informed the spiritual imagery which was a hallmark of his later work as a performer. His early adult years were spent in a fruitless search for steady work which led him from the country to the city and back again; he picked up the guitar around 1927 as a respite from jobs ranging from picking cotton to pouring concrete to working at a scrap metal yard. Eventually, Johnson landed work at the Esso refinery in Baton Rouge, where he worked for 15 years before being unexpectly fired; scrambling to find work -- an experience memorably recalled in his song "Depression Blues" -- he finally was hired as a janitor at Southern University in nearby Scotlandville. He held the same job at the time of his lone recording session, cut in Baton Rouge by Dr. Harry Oster in 1961; after suffering a stroke in 1970, Johnson went into retirement, and died on February 2, 1975. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Louisiana swamp blues veteran Clarence Edwards was rediscovered in the '90s after a long hiatus from recording, and began to garner some of the recognition he deserved just prior to his unfortunately timed death. Edwards was born March 25, 1933, in Lindsay, LA, as one of 14 siblings. When his family moved into Baton Rouge, the 12-year-old... [+] Read More

Louisiana swamp blues veteran Clarence Edwards was rediscovered in the '90s after a long hiatus from recording, and began to garner some of the recognition he deserved just prior to his unfortunately timed death. Edwards was born March 25, 1933, in Lindsay, LA, as one of 14 siblings. When his family moved into Baton Rouge, the 12-year-old Edwards began to learn the guitar by listening to old Charley Patton records. Sometime in his twenties, Edwards began playing the local blues circuit, initially joining a band called the Boogie Beats, which featured his brother Cornelius, Landry Buggs, and drummer Jackson Acox. Edwards also played with the Bluebird Kings, but his most notable (or, at least, frightening) experience on the circuit came one night when he was shot in the leg during an altercation outside the Silver Moon Club in Alsen. Apart from playing music, Edwards supported himself with farm work, and eventually landed a job at Thomas Scrap, where he worked for over 30 years. Edwards' first recording sessions were undertaken from 1959-1961, when he, his brother Cornelius, and violinist James "Butch" Cage recorded together for folk chronicler Harry Oster (see the Country Negro Jam Sessions album). In contrast to the traditional approach of those sessions, Edwards' next recordings -- done in 1970 for producer Mike Vernon -- were more conscious of contemporary trends; they've been issued on compilations like Louisiana Blues and Swamp Blues. Edwards remained largely silent until the mid-'80s, when bluesman Tabby Thomas' club the Blues Box helped revive the Baton Rouge blues scene. Thanks to Thomas, Edwards began finding regular performance work again, not just locally but on the blues festival circuit as well. In 1990, Edwards finally recorded his first full-length album, an acoustic/electric affair for Sidetrack titled Swamp's the Word (it was later remastered and reissued on CD by Red Lightnin'). 1991 saw the release of another album, Swampin', this time for New Rose, and 1992 produced Louisiana Swamp Blues, Vol. 4, a compilation of mostly Edwards sessions featuring him both solo and with a small group. The quality of Edwards' work earned generally high praise in blues circles, but sadly, just as he was beginning to gain wider recognition among aficionados, he died in his longtime hometown of Scotlandville, LA, in 1993, at the age of 60. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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More classic early sides. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

More classic early sides. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Admirable attempt at reviving the swamp-blues sound by veteran Louisiana guitarist. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

Admirable attempt at reviving the swamp-blues sound by veteran Louisiana guitarist. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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