There’s nothing like that phase when you’re falling deep into a musical style and learning the musical vocabulary and soaking up all the details you can find about the amazing players that you’re discovering on an almost daily basis. One thing leads to another—you get into Muddy Waters and that leads you to Buddy Guy and then you’re finding out about Junior Wells and pretty soon you’re having to hear more records by this Earl Hooker guy.
That’s how I ended up with a vinyl copy of “The Leading Brand” on Red Lightnin’ Records. I bought it because half of the album was made up of singles by Earl Hooker. The rest were recordings from the ‘50s and early ‘60s by Jody Williams, a Chicago blues musician who I had never heard of. I have played the hell out of “The Leading Brand” ever since, and while it certainly added to my appreciation for the genius of Earl Hooker, it was the spectacular work of Jody Williams that really stuck with me.
Jody Williams’ shimmering guitar tone and solid singing would have been enough, but it was the quality of his original songs that made him truly special. These weren’t blues jams or show-off pieces, but carefully constructed tunes that were far more sophisticated than most of the work by Williams’ contemporaries. Jazz chords, unusual changes, totally unique riffs, latin rhythms, hip melodies—there were lots of glorious surprises when you listened to Jody Williams.
As I dug deeper about him, Jody Williams seemed to show up everywhere. He had started out playing the harmonica as a boy in Chicago. What he learned on that instrument, tellingly, was not the blues harp style but the pop instrumental hits of the Chicago-based Harmonicats. When Williams was 16 he met Bo Diddley at a talent show and, inspired, bought a guitar. Bo showed him how to tune it to open E major, and Williams quickly developed a style heavily influenced by his idols T Bone Walker and BB King.
Five years after he first held a guitar, Williams was playing in Howlin’ Wolf’s band. He toured with Bo Diddley and did club dates with Memphis Slim. Throughout the following decade, Williams was a sought-after session player. The killer lead guitar on Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,” Sonny Boy Williamson’s classic “Don’t Start Me Talkin’,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil Is Going On,” and on Billy Boy Arnold’s hit “I Wish You Would”? Jody Williams. He also recorded with, among others, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Rush, Otis Spann, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bobby Charles, and Willie Dixon. As Bill Dahl has said, Williams is the string-bending link between T Bone Walker and BB King and Buddy Guy and Otis Rush.
But professional frustrations (there was a protracted lawsuit with Mickey Baker over the authorship of the monster hit “Love Is Strange,” which Williams claimed was stolen from him), a growing family, and some training in electronics gained during a stint in the Army convinced Jody Williams to quit music. The liner notes for “The Leading Brand” ended with this plaintive coda:
“We must savour these recordings because it is unlikely that Jody will consent to cut another disc again, but we can only live in the hope that this distinctive and exciting guitarist will relent and give the world another taste of his amazing talent.”
For the next twenty-five years, that was it in terms of news about Jody Williams. Then in 2001 came the miraculous news of a new Jody Williams CD on Evidence, “Return of a Legend.” The years of pleading by fans and friends like Michael James, Dick Shurman, Scott Dirks, Steve Cushing, and Randy Chortkoff had finally paid off. Williams had retired from his job of nearly thirty years as an engineer for Xerox and, after a lot of deliberation, had decided to pick up his Gibson 345 again and to do some gigs. Williams picked right up where he had left off with “Return of a Legend,” which featured new versions of some of his classic tunes, eight new original songs, and guest appearances by Tinsley Ellis, Sean Costello, and Rusty Zinn, three guitarists heavily influenced by Williams.
Dick Shurman brought Jody Williams to the Pacific Northwest after the new CD came out, and I caught two of those shows. It was a real thrill to finally see him in action. “I put that guitar under my bed and never even looked at it for thirty years,” he told me between sets. He seemed surprised and genuinely moved by the adulation of a new generation of blues fans. Jody Williams’ comeback included another CD, featured spots in the top blues festivals, tours of Europe, and inductions into the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis and the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.
I did a gig Saturday at the Rockfish Café in Anacortes, Washington, a venue where I saw Jody Williams play in 2002. I noticed that the club had hung his autographed portrait on the wall by the entrance. Jody Williams had died earlier that day in a nursing home in Indiana, but I wouldn’t know that until Sunday.
Even amongst the legion of Chicago blues geniuses—creative giants who all admired and respected him—Jody Williams stood out for his stunning, unique musicianship. We are so lucky and privileged to be able to continue to savor his wonderful creations.