Big Joe Williams › Similar Artists

Sleepy John Estes - 100% match to Big Joe Williams

John Adams Estes, 25 January 1899, Ripley, Tennessee, USA, d. 5 June 1977, Brownsville, Tennessee, USA. This influential blues singer first performed at local house-parties while in his early teens. In 1916 he began working with mandolin player Yank Rachell, a partnership that was revived several times throughout their respective careers. It was also during this formative pe Read more

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - 85% match to Big Joe Williams

24 August 1905, Forest, Mississippi, USA, d. 28 March 1976, Nassawadox, Virginia, USA (1974 is also cited). During the 40s and early 50s Crudup was an important name in the blues field, his records selling particularly well in the south. For much of his early life Crudup worked in various rural occupations, not learning to play the guitar until he was 32. His teacher was one Read more

Blind Boy Fuller - 79% match to Big Joe Williams

Fulton Allen, 1908, Wadesboro, North Carolina, USA, d. 13 February 1941, USA. One of a large family, Fuller learned to play the guitar as a child and had begun a life as a transient singer when he was blinded, either through disease or when lye water was thrown in his face. By the late 20s he was well known throughout North Carolina and Virginia, playing and singing at count Read more

Bukka White - 79% match to Big Joe Williams

Booker T. Washington White, 12 November 1906, Houston, Mississippi, USA, d. 26 February 1977, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. White learned guitar and piano in his teens, and hoboed from 1921, playing blues with artists such as George ‘Bullet’ Williams. In the mid-30s White was a boxer and baseball pitcher. He recorded for Victor Records in 1930, a largely unissued sessio Read more

Tampa Red - 79% match to Big Joe Williams

Hudson Woodbridge aka Whittaker, 8 January 1904, Smithville, Georgia, USA, d. 19 March 1981, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Tampa Red was raised in Tampa, Florida, by his grandmother Whittaker’s family, hence his nickname. By the time of his 1928 recording debut for Vocalion Records, he had developed the clear, precise bottleneck blues guitar style that earned him his billing, Read more

Roosevelt Sykes - 68% match to Big Joe Williams

31 January 1906, Elmar, Arkansas, USA, d. 17 July 1983, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Sykes learned piano at the age of 12 and by the early 20s was playing in local barrelhouses. He moved to St. Louis in 1928 and his first recordings for OKeh Records and Victor Records were made from 1929-31. During the 30s, Sykes recorded for Decca Records and acted as a talent scout for the Read more

Furry Lewis - 62% match to Big Joe Williams

Walter Lewis, 6 March 1893, Greenwood, Mississippi, USA, d. 14 September 1981, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Furry Lewis was a songster, a blues musician, a humorist and an all-round entertainer. Raised in the country, he picked up the guitar at an early age and moved into Memphis around 1900 where he busked on the streets. After he ran away from home, he had experience working o Read more

Jimmy Rogers - 61% match to Big Joe Williams

J.B. Lenoir - 58% match to Big Joe Williams

5 March 1929, Monticello, Mississippi, USA, d. 29 April 1967, Champaign, Illinois, USA. Christened with initials, Lenoir was taught to play the guitar by his father, Dewitt. Other acknowledged influences were Blind Lemon Jefferson, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup and Lightnin’ Hopkins, with the latter’s single-string runs and verse tags becoming an integral part Read more

J.B. Hutto - 57% match to Big Joe Williams

Joseph Benjamin Hutto, 26 April 1926, Elko, near Blackville, South Carolina, USA, d. 12 June 1983, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Hutto’s family moved to Augusta, Georgia when he was three years old, and he later sang in the Golden Crowns Gospel Singers, before moving to Chicago in 1949. While in Chicago he began to play drums and sing blues with Johnny Ferguson’s Twister Read more

Magic Sam - 55% match to Big Joe Williams

Samuel Gene Maghett, 14 February 1937, Grenada County, Mississippi, USA, d. 1 December 1969, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Although Maghett’s immediate family were not musical, he received encouragement from his uncle, Shakey Jake, a popular blues singer on Chicago’s west side. Maghett arrived in the city in 1950 and by the age of 20 had secured a recording contract with Read more

Memphis Slim - 53% match to Big Joe Williams

Big Bill Broonzy - 50% match to Big Joe Williams

William Lee Conley Broonzy, 26 June 1893 (some sources give 1898), Scott, Mississippi, USA, d. 14 August 1958, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Broonzy worked as a field hand, and it was behind the mule that he first developed his unmistakable, hollering voice, with its remarkable range and flexibility. As a child he made himself a violin, and learned to play under the guidance of an Read more

Charley Patton - 49% match to Big Joe Williams

1 May 1891, Bolton, Mississippi, USA, d. 28 April 1934, Indianola, Mississippi, USA. Charley Patton was small, but in all other ways larger than life; his death from a chronic heart condition at the age of 43 brought to an end his relentless pursuit of the good things then available to a black man in Mississippi - liquor, women, food (courtesy of women), music, and the avoid Read more

Lowell Fulson - 49% match to Big Joe Williams

31 March 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, d. 6 March 1999, Los Angeles, California, USA. Blues guitarist Lowell Fulson (whose surname was often mistakenly misspelled Fulsom) recorded steadily from 1946 onwards, and performed regularly on the US and European club circuits into the 90s. One of the founding fathers of West Coast blues, Fulson blended the rural blues of his home stat Read more