Williams, Big Joe Lee

Big Joe Williams, also known as Po’ Joe Williams, Joe Lee Williams, or simply Joe Williams, should not be confused with the jazz singer Joe Williams, who performed with Count Basie. Big Joe, as he came to be known in his later years, was the paradigmatic wandering blues singer, one of sixteen children born to Cora Lee Williams and John Williams. He was part Native American (on his father’s side), while from his mother and her family he inherited his...