Willie Brown, bluesman and friend

Willie Brown spent all his life (August, 6,1900, Clarcksdale, MS – December, 30,1952, Tunica, MS) in the Delta. He played with Charlie Patton and Son House and recorded by himself only a few (disputed) songs. Brown’s style is very sofisticated, inspired by the rythmic versatility of Charlie Patton and influenced by Son House’s stunning use of syncopes. As a matter of fact, he accompanied Son House from the early 30s to the late 40s.
Willie Brown is especilly known for being referred to in the famous Robert Johnson Crossroad Blues (“my friend-boy Willie Brown”) – some day, baby, I gonna write about that song. It is not quite sure if Johnson referred to him in his verse, but this is the most reliable hypothesis. Anyway, it is also known that the person who had to be notified in the occasion of Johnson’s death was called Willie Brown. At the time, in the Delta, there were at least two bluesmen having this name and probably thousands of other people, but this is a beautiful blues story which I want to believe in. If it is true, it might give us a hint in the attempt of understanding the character.
I met Willie Brown for the first time while listening to an unique performance of Son House’s Walkin’ Blues. It’s a “field record” (1946, during one of the last Southern trips of Allan Lomax) which gathered Son House (vocals, guitar), Willie Brown (guitar), Fiddlin’ Joe Martin (mandolina) and Leroy Williams (harmonica) – sample here, for I’m not allowed to share it with you. In the first instance I didn’t like Brown very much, mainly because there’s an obvious difference between his “soft” way of playing and House’s violent and expressive stroke; additionnaly, I used to think Brown was drunk at the moment – I wasn’t able to find another explanation for his (quite untasteful) hollers and respondings to Son House’s leading vocals; furthermore, Lomax reports having bought beer before recording the other William Brown (Ragged and Dirty, Mississippi Blues).
Fortunately, after having carefully listen to the songs Brown performed alone, I came to give up these first thougts, to reconsider his music and to decide to write here about him.
Willie Brown gets credit for having recorded four songs; two of them are certified (M&O Blues and the Future Blues), while the others are very disputed (Rowdy Blues, issued under the name of a misterious Kid Bailey, – who is, or isn’t, Brown himself, and a verision of Make Me a Pallet on the Floor, recorded by Lomax during the war, in 1941). I ain’t willin to say nuffin in dis debate, but I tell ya one thin: de fust two does sho soun differen.
If I was to put together all the few things I know about Willie Brown, I’d say he was a rather shy person, maybe oversensitive, comforted by liquor and friendship. He must have have an itinerant life, drifting from farm to farm, playing on sunday nights for the cotton pickers, on thursdays for himself, loving and being loved and left, fighting in the barrelhouses.
OK, enough talking for now. In the two post to come I’ll invite you to listen to Future Blues and M&O Blues and I’ll comment their lyrics. Meanwhile, feel free to listen to Robert Johnson’s take two of the Crossroads (Willie Brown mentionned in the last verse).