Willie Brown (musician)
Willie Brown (
August 6,
1900 -
December 30,
1952) was an
American Delta Blues guitarist and
singer.
Born in
Clarksdale, Mississippi, he played with such notables as
Charley Patton,
Son House, and
Robert Johnson. He was not known to be a self-promoting frontman, preferring to "second" (accompany) other musicians. Little is known of the man whom Robert Johnson called "my friend boy Willie Brown" (in his prophetic "Cross Road Blues") and who Johnson indicated should be notified in event of his death. Brown is heard with Patton on the
Paramount label sessions of
1930, playing "M & O Blues," and "Future Blues." Apart from playing with Son House and Charlie Patton it has also been said that played with artists such as
Luke Thomson and
Thomas "Clubfoot" Coles. At least four other songs he recorded for Paramount have never been found.
"Rowdy Blues", a
1929 song credited to
Kid Bailey, is disputed to have Brown on backup, or Brown himself using the name of Kid Bailey. Willie Brown does his song "Future Blues" on the album
Son House & The Great Delta Blues Singers (
1994), recorded between
1928 and
1930, on the Document (USA) label.
The
WPA (Works Progress Administration) directed
John Lomax and his son
Alan Lomax to record artists in the south during the
Great Depression for the
Library of Congress. Willie Brown can be heard on a field recording done by Alan Lomax for the
Archive of American Folksong by the Library of Congress in
1941, "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor," though, as before, there is some question in the community of scholars as to whether this was the same Willie Brown.
He died in Tunica, Mississippi at the age of 52.
Willie Brown was featured as the central character in the movie
Crossroads (1986).
*
"Cross Road Blues" lyrics
