http://youtu.be/GLhudp4VROo
Willie King was a guitarist and singer, but it was his song writing and support of civil rights and rural traditions that make him a very important figure in the history of the American south. Even so, King shunned fame and the main venue for his music was a small juke joint in Mississippi.
King was born during the Jim Crow days in Prairie Point, Mississippi, in 1943. His father abandoned the family and Willie was raised by his grandparents who were share croppers. His grandfather sang gospel but his absent father was a Blues singer and King loved the Blues. He started playing music after making a diddley bo, but had a one string guitar by age 9. Sometime later, he graduated to a full six string guitar.
http://youtu.be/ej3xhZZPBps
Over the years Willie worked at many jobs including share cropper and moonshiner but always played guitar. King moved to Chicago in 1967 but soon returned to the south, settling in Alabama just across the border from his old Mississippi home.
Working as a traveling salesman gave him a good look at the unequal treatment of African-Americans in the south of the 1960s. Late in the decade he began to work for civil rights and wrote Blues songs to expose the inequities of life in the rural south.
http://youtu.be/HfkEK0W6KJk
Civil rights was important to him, but so was rural life and traditions. He created The Rural Members Association teaching African-American traditions and skills of rural living and providing services for the needy including transportation and legal assistance. He also created The Freedom Creek Festival and said of it "We was targetin' at tryin' to get all walks of life, different people to come down and kinda be with us in reality down there, you know. Let's get back to reality, in the woods . . . mix and mingle . . . get to know each other. Get up to have a workin' relationship, try to bring peace . . ."
http://youtu.be/0OdyemljtrY
Visible World Films discovered Willie while they were planning a film on the arts and culture of rural African-Americans. They soon changed plans to a film about King and the result was Down in the Woods. In 2003 Martin Scorsese featured King in his epic documentary series The Blues.
http://youtu.be/tgeeQWO07ts
Willie King passed away in 2009. He had received many local, state and national awards for his Blues and activism plus his work to preserve the skills and traditions of the rural south.
