Biography
Two Blues Masters that got together.
"...After his successful 1941 trip, in July 1942 Alan Lomax returned to Mississippi for more recordings and, on his way south, encountered Willie '61' Blackwell in Memphis--they almost certainly had to travel across the Mississippi River to Arkansas, to find a recordin& location because of harrassment from the Memphis police. 19 Blackwell purposefully recorded only two songs for Lomax, one a remake of Willie's earlier Bluebird B 8921 waxing "Four O'Clock Flower Blues" (AFS 6605 A 1), and the other, included here, the patriotic and extraordinary "Junior, A Jap's Girl Christmas For His Santa Claus"; which Willie sang '..because I'm an American citizen'.
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Willie Blackwell is one of the most eccentric of all recorded bluesmen, the lyrics to his known compositions being among the most surreal blues on record, and it is probably for the latter reason that Lomax recorded him.
Lomax asked: 'How long have you been making up songs Willie?' 'Well, I've been just jivin' on with verses all my life but I never had no opportunity and never was very interested in 'em and therefore was quite natural, come natural...' he replied in a recorded interview following "Four O'Clock Flower Blues".
Nothing is known of Willie's guitar playing companion William Brown (not the same man as Willie Brown), excepting that in a few comments following Brown's recording of "East St. Louis Blues" (AFS 6606 A 2) he sounds an older man than Blackwell; a fact born out by Lomax asking Brown whether he knew pre-blues like "Stagolee" and "Railroad Bill", both of which William had 'forgotten'.
On a tip-off from southern and Detroit-Flint bluesman Dr. Ross, Willie '61' Blackwell was 'rediscovered' in Flint during the mid-60s by Ron Harwood and Sam Stark. From them we learn that Blackwell may have been an uncle of Calvin Frazier--yet another southern bluesman who moved to the Detroit area--and in 1968 was aged about 70 years. Originally a pianist, Blackwell switched to guitar 'after a serious wound in the left arm'--he told Alan Lomax that he had been 'ganged at a roadhouse' and that his hand had been broken.
Willie was well remembered by Memphis and Detroit blues musician Robert 'Baby Boy' Warren, with whom he was very friendly. Both lived in Memphis for a good part of their early lives--Blackwell told Lomax that he had been in Memphis practically all his life--and 'Baby Boy' claimed that his elder brother, Jack, helped Willie to learn to play guitar after his 'accident' Blackwell, however, told Harwood that Robert Johnson had taught him to play guitar. Both Warren and Harwood may be correct, certainly Blackwell seems to have been associated with Johnson's circle via his stepson Robert 'Junior' Lockwood; both Willie and Robert Jr. recorded for Bluebird in Chicago on 30 July 1941. Additionally, Blackwell's reported nephew, Calvin Frazier, was an associate of Johnson.
By about 1944 both 'Baby Boy' Warren and '61' Blackwell had moved to the Detroit area where they played together on the streets. Willie's subsequent movements up until the time of his 'rediscovery' are not known and he has now disappeared again, last being reported in Memphis during the Fall of 1970 and Spring of 1971.
Harwood and Stark indicate that 'Baby Boy' frequently recorded Blackwell's songs and similarities between their recorded repertoires gives some substance to this claim."
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.