MISSISSIPPI MUSICIANS: WILLIE KING

Willie King 1943-2009

Major Works and Awards

Freedom Creek by Willie King & The Liberators (2000)
Jukin' At Bettie's (2004)
One Love (2006)
I Am The Blues (2000)
Living in a New World (2002)

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Willie King: A Biography

Born March 8, 1943, in Prairie Point, Mississippi, blues singer and guitarist Willie King began his music career on a plantation with a homemade six-string “diddly-bo.” He and his siblings were raised by his grandparents after his mother and father separated when King was two. They grew up in a house filled with gospel and blues music. When he was six, the family moved to west Alabama. His music reflected his lifelong role as a social activist.

King moved in 1967 to Chicago where he spent a year trying to find secure work. However, he returned to Old Memphis, Alabama, where he began working as a salesman, traveling rural roads with his goods, and talking politics with mostly poor, rural Alabama residents. He also got involved in the civil rights movement. Throughout the 1970s, King continued to write blues songs inspired by the civil rights movement. He called his political songs "struggling songs," which he used to educate his audiences. In 1987, Jim O'Neal, the founder of Rooster Blues, was thrilled by King and his band The Liberators at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama. O'Neal liked King's juke-joint guitar stylings, raw vocals, and political lyrics. When O'Neal relocated his label to Memphis from Chicago, he produced King's Freedom Creek, which was released in October 2000. The album was recorded on location at Bettie's Place in Prairie Point, Mississippi. The Living in a New World by Willie King album was successful and was followed by Living in a New World, released in 2002.

An unassuming bluesman, Willie King lived his life in his rural community, Old Memphis, Alabama, near the Mississippi line. He annually held the Freedom Creek Festival, which benefited The Rural Members Association, (King’s organization sponsoring classes in music, woodworking, food preservation and other African-American traditions as well as providing transportation, legal assistance and other services for the needy for the past two decades). He played blues festivals in Europe, appeared in Martin Scorsese’s documentary, Feel Like Going Home, and was the subject of a documentary Down Home, by Dutch filmmakers Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga of Visible World Films. Known to blues fans nationally and internationally, King released six recordings and played numerous festivals.

He was recognized by Living Blues magazine in 2000, 2001 and in 2003 named Jukin' at Bettie's by Willie King Male Blues Artist of 2003. King nominated for the traditional blues male artist of the year in the 2006 Blues Music Awards. In 2005, King was inducted into the Howlin’ Wolf Hall of Fame. King also was a repeated nominee for the W.C. Handy Awards.

Willie King played his last concert in Columbus, Mississippi, on Saturday night, March 7. He died on March 8, 2009, his 66th birthday, of a massive heart attack at Noxubee General Hospital. His wife, Mary Coleman, and his two daughters survive him.

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Related Websites

The Willie King page on the Alabama Blues sites gives a lot of information about Willie King.