Johnny Williams (blues musician)
| Johnny Williams | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Uncle Johnny Williams |
| Born |
May 15, 1906 Alexandria, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | March 6, 2006 (aged 99) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1930s–1959 |
| Associated acts | Johnny Young |
Johnny Williams (May 15, 1906 – March 6, 2006) was an American blues guitar player and singer based in Chicago, who was one of the first of the new generation of electric blues players to record after World War II.
Williams was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, to parents who were both musicians. He was raised in Houston, Texas, and moved to Belzoni, Mississippi, to live with his uncle Anthony Williams after his mother died around 1917. There he met local musicians such as the Chatmon brothers and Charley Patton (with whom his uncle played) and learned to play the guitar. After traveling north during the 1920s, he returned to Belzoni around 1930, where he occasionally played locally.
Moving to Chicago in 1938, he worked at first in the defense industry and later for Oscar Mayer. By 1943 he was playing in clubs in the evenings while working as a meat packer in the daytime. He worked with Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor around 1944. In 1945 he lost the end of a finger in a meat grinder and gave up playing the guitar for a year, until he saw Blind Arvella Gray, who was missing two fingers from his left hand, playing on Maxwell Street, and learned to play the guitar without the missing finger. In the late 1940s Williams was once more playing on Maxwell Street and in clubs, often working with his cousin, the mandolin player Johnny Young; with the harmonica player Snooky Pryor and the guitarists Floyd Jones and Moody Jones; or with Little Walter. He joined the musicians' union around this time. He acquired the nickname Uncle Johnny, by which he was known among his blues associates for the rest of his life.
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