William Brown was a man who recorded a handful of blues on Sadie Beck's Plantation on July 16, 1942 for
Alan Lomax. Once thought to be the same man as the Willie Brown who played with Son House and Charley Patton--and was immortalized in Robert Johnson's
Crossroad Blues--the consensus now is that William Brown was a different man, about
whom we know next to nothing. Certainly, the handful of recordings we have that feature him supports this. The Willie Brown who recorded
Future Blues and
M & O Blues was an archetypal Delta bluesman, with both songs being stripped down versions of Charley Patton's
Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues, among others, and
Pony Blues, respectively. The
William Brown who recorded
Mississippi Blues,
Ragged and Dirty and
Make Me a Pallet on the Floor plays and sings nothing like that Willie Brown. That we know nothing about him and never heard any more of his music is one of the many tragedies of recorded blues.
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posted by y2karl
on Aug 30, 2011 -
15 comments
The Band is one of the more user-friendly fan sites I have come across. What I appreciate most is the (unadvertised)
chord charts. They are not always right but they are often not wrong. Subtle, theatrical chromaticism, your name is
Mozart Robbie Robertson.
posted by St Urbain's Horseman
on Oct 26, 2007 -
16 comments
