Willie King (March 18, 1943 – March 8, 2009) was an American blues guitarist and singer, known for shunning fame and playing at a local bar in Mississippi.
King was born in Prairie Point, Mississippi. After his father left the home, Willie and his siblings were raised by his grandparents, who were local sharecroppers. Music was important to the King family - Willie's grandfather was a gospel singer, and his absent father was an amateur blues musician. Young Willie made a diddley bo by nailing a baling wire to a tree in the yard. By age 9, he had a one-string guitar that he could bring indoors to play at night.
Eventually he progressed to guitar, when his plantation owner, W.P. Morgan, brought him his first guitar, an acoustic Gibson, when he was 13 years old. King paid off the $60 price tag for the guitar by working on the plantation and feeding the plantation's cows in the morning. He made his professional debut at a house party in Mississippi, playing all night for two dollars. King focused his efforts on learning more tunes and expanded his repertoire to include tunes by Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker.
In 1967, Willie King moved to Chicago in an attempt to make more money than he could down South. After a year spent on the West and South Sides, he returned to Old Memphis, Alabama, just across the border from the Mississippi Prairie. A salesman of shoes, cologne, and other frivolities, Willie traveled the rural roads hawking goods and talking politics. Choosing not to work under the "old system" of unequal treatment, King joined the civil rights movement near the end of the decadewhich inspired him to write socially conscious blues songs.
Prior to recording, he worked in many occupations including as a sharecropper, and a moonshine maker. He later became active with the civil rights movement. In 1983, he founded the Rural Members Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the traditional rural skills King had grown up with, which he called 'survival skills,' and helping improve his local community.
Here’s “Mamaluchi”
from above album.
In 1987, a chance meeting at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama, blew Rooster Blues founder Jim O'Neal away: According to O'Neal, King's "juke-joint musical style and political lyrics knocked me down." The two kept in touch for the next 13 years, during which O'Neal relocated his label, and King concentrated on his own community, forging relationships with local youth through a blues education program, through his organization The Rural Members Association.
In 1997, the RMA started the annual Freedom Creek blues festival, which has since received international recognition. King performed at national and international festivals but mostly played near his home, most notably as a regular at Bettie's Juke joint in Mississippi. He described his music as "struggling blues" because of its focus on the "injustices in life in the rural South".
He began recording in 1999 and his 2000 recordings Freedom Creek and I Am The Blues, were the first of several acclaimed albums.King's follow up, Living In a New World, is nothing short of spectacular. Produced by Jim O'Neal and recorded at Easley Studio in Memphis, the album reminds the listener of Curtis Mayfield while allowing RL Burnside fans to rejoice as well.
In addition to the two CD's on the Rooster Blues label, Willie has also four independently recorded CDs - Walkin' the Walk, Talkin' the Talk which was recorded with local Alabama bluesman "Birmingham" George Conner, and the widely acclaimed I Am The Blues. Jukin' At Bettie's was recorded live at Bettie's Place, a deep South rural juke joint. His last recording was One Love.
Dutch film-makers Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga (Visible World Films) wanted to produce a documentary about African American arts and culture in the Deep South. But they met Willie King and instead decided to devote their efforts to creating a documentary about King's life and times, titled Down in the Woods. King was also featured in Martin Scorsese's 2003 documentary series The Blues and Shout Factory's Blues Story the same year.
King died from a massive heart attack shortly before his 66th birthday, near his home in the rural community of Old Memphis, Alabama, just a few miles from his birthplace. Willie touched the lives of so many with his amazing, spirit, music and message and it is so important and wonderful that his legacy continues to be recognized.
(Edited
from Wikipedia, the Willie King web site & AllMusic)