Willie Nix (August 6, 1922 – July 8, 1991) was an American
Chicago blues singer and drummer, active in Memphis, Tennessee, United States,
in the 1940s and 1950s.
Willie Nix came out of the rural South with a great beat and
a way with lyrics that made him something of a topical urban poet. Despite
recordings for RPM and Sun, and then Chance in Chicago, he never advanced
beyond the ranks of the also-rans in the quest for blues success, in either
Memphis or Chicago; however, if anyone ever deserved to do better based on the
evidence that's left behind, it was Willie Nix.
Born in Memphis, as a child he learned to tap dance, later
working as a teenager as part dancer, part comedian, with the Rabbit Foot
Minstrels. This led to work in various variety shows in the 1940s, and Nix
later became a part of the blues scene that grew up around Beale Street. His
musical work saw him appear on local radio with Robert Lockwood Jr., and work
alongside Willie Love, Joe Willie Wilkins and Sonny Boy Williamson II, billed
as the Four Aces, who toured the Deep South.
Nix joined B.B. King and Joe Hill Louis for appearances on
Memphis radio, and worked with The Beale Streeters during the late '40s. He
made his first records in Memphis for RPM in 1951, and cut sides for Chess
Records' Checker offshoot in 1952. Nix wrote the songs "Nervous
Wreck" and "Try Me One More Time", and reworked others such as
Catfish Blues and Curtis Jones' Lonesome Bedroom Blues.
Sam Philips signed him up as "the Memphis Blues
Boy" for Sun in early 1953, as a singing drummer with a band, and he later
cut sides for Art Sheridan's Chance label in Chicago. He worked with Elmore
James, Sonny Boy Williamson, Johnny Shines, and Memphis Slim during the mid
'50s, but at the end of the decade was back in Memphis, and did a short stretch
in prison late in the decade. In the late 1950s Nix was briefly a member of
Willie Cobbs' band.
The next twenty years saw Nix perform sporadically, and as
his health declined, his behaviour became more eccentric. He did not record
again, although his mid-1950s work is held in high regard for his lyrical
dexterity and compelling beat.
Nix never saw any success as a recording artist, and never
stayed with one label long enough to record anything resembling an album's
worth of material. His work appears on various label compilations, however, and
is distinctive for his driving beat and his extraordinary cleverness with
lyrics, especially the Chance sides.
Nix died in Leland, Mississippi, in 1991. (Info edited from AMG & Wikipedia)
1 comment:
Here’s a little compilation of Willie’s early 1950’s sides I collected from various sources and Youtube
For “Willie Nix – Baker Shop Boogie”
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ro4mej
01 willie-nix-lonesome-bedroom-blues.mp3
02 Willie Nix - Try Me One More Time.mp3
03 willie-nix-Truckin' little woman.mp3
04 willie-nix-just-one-mistake.mp3
05 willie-nix-midnight-showers-of-rain.mp3
06 willie-nix-riding-in-the-moonlight.mp3
07 willie-nix-prison-bound-blues.mp3
08 willie-nix-seems-like-a-million-years.mp3
09 willie-nix-baker-shop-boogie.mp3
10 willie-nix-mean and evil.mp3
11 willie-nix-nervous-wreck.mp3
12 willie-nix-no-more-love.mp3
13 willie-nix-all-by-yourself.mp3
14 willie-nix-just-can-t-stay.mp3
15 willie-nix-let-s-take-a-little-walk.mp3
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