Boogie Bill Webb (March 24, 1924 – August 22, 1990) was an
American Louisiana blues and R&B guitarist, singer and songwriter. Webb's
own style of music combined Mississippi country blues with New Orleans R&B.
His best known recordings were "Bad Dog" and "Drinkin' and
Stinkin'". Despite a lengthy, albeit stuttering, career, Webb nevertheless
only released one album.
Born 1924 in Jackson, MS, Webb received his first guitar --
a cigar box with strings made of screen wire -- at the age of eight; his style
was most profoundly influenced by local bluesman Tommy Johnson, an
entertainment fixture at the myriad fish-fry dinners organized by Webb's
mother. He acquired a real guitar as a teenager, and in the years to follow
split his time between Jackson and New Orleans, their respective musical
cultures shaping the mutant blues of Webb's later work.
Circa 1947, he won a Jackson talent show and was awarded a
role in the musical short film The Jackson Jive for his efforts; he
nevertheless settled in New Orleans in 1952, and via longtime friend Fats
Domino he was introduced to R&B great Dave Bartholomew, who helped Webb
land a deal with Imperial Records.
The following year, he issued his recorded debut, "Bad
Dog," an archetypal slab of country boogie that found few takers in the
face of growing listener demand for more urbanized R&B. A frustrated Webb
left New Orleans for Chicago, where he spent the next five years toiling in a
series of factory jobs.
He continued playing guitar at house parties and sat in with John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Chuck Berry and thanks to the influence of Windy City bluesmen like Muddy Waters, he was an even more original musician by the time he returned to the Crescent City in 1959.
He continued playing guitar at house parties and sat in with John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Chuck Berry and thanks to the influence of Windy City bluesmen like Muddy Waters, he was an even more original musician by the time he returned to the Crescent City in 1959.
While working by day as a longshoreman, Webb gigged only
infrequently, but in 1968 he recorded several songs for folklorist David Evans
later issued on the Arhoolie LP Roosevelt Holts and His Friends. The album
proved a major favorite among European blues enthusiasts, several of whom even travelled
to New Orleans to meet Webb in person. The 1972 compilation album, The Legacy
of Tommy Johnson contained five tracks performed by Webb.
After multiple invitations to tour Europe, he finally
accepted an offer to play the 1982 Dutch Utreck Festival. In 1989, thanks to
funding from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, he also issued his
first full-length LP, the Flying Fish release Drinkin' and Stinkin', but he
died on August 22, 1990, at the age of 66. (Info mainly from All Music)
1 comment:
Your top photo is NOT Bill Webb. The rest of the photos are accurate, however the lead photo, which comes up in searching, is not the singer. I knew him personally.
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