Willie King's Home Page

WILLIE KING'S 2008
FREEDOM CREEK FESTIVAL

WILLIE KING DVD NOMINATED FOR
BLUES AWARD!!!!!

The 11th annual Freedom Creek Blues Festival will take place at Willie King's home in Old Memphis, Alabama, on

Friday 30th May and Saturday 31st May

featuring legendary bluesmen

Sam Lay, Jerry Portnoy and Willie King and the Liberators.

Dutch film-makers Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga of Visible World Films came to America with the intention of producing a documentary about African American arts and culture in the deep South. When they met Willie King, they decided instead to devote their efforts to creating a DVD about Willie's life and times.

Over a period of several months, the couple recorded Willie King as he worked with his community in Pickens County and performed at festivals, juke joints and parties.

The DVD is a fascinating collage of Willie King's life and many activites, illuminated by searing live performances and interviews with his family and friends. It enables the viewer to experience what it is like to be a modern bluesman living in the Alabama Black Belt, "down in the woods."

Click here to get your copy now!!!!!

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T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILBLE ONLINE!!!!

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March 27th and 28th: High Point , North Carolina at T. S. Berry Email for further information

April 7th: Butler, Alabama at the Butler Spring Fling tel: Barry at (205) 459 2858

April 14th: Clarksdale, Mississippi at Cat Head and Ground Zero tel: (662) 624 5992

May 3rd: Demopolis, Alabama 6pm as part of the Demopolis "Sax In The City" concert series tel: (334) 289 0270

May 11th: Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the Jupiter Bar & Grill tel: (205) 248 6611

July 20th and 21st: Jackson, Mississippi at the 930 Club tel: (601) 948 3344

September 15th: Tuscaloosa, Alabama at Dreamland Bar-B-Que tel:(205) 758 8135

September 22nd: Tuscaloosa, Alabama at Dreamland Bar-B-Que tel:(205) 758 8135

October 6th: Helena, Arkansas at the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (formerly known as "King Biscuit Blues Festival") tel: (870) 338 8798

October 25th: Demopolis, Alabama 6pm as part of the Demopolis "Sax In The City" concert series tel: (334) 289 0270

October 27th: Carrollton, Alabama 7pm at the Pickens County Medical Center tel:(205) 367 2426

December 31st: NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY in Jackson, Mississippi at Schimmel's Restaurant tel: (601) 981 7077

March 29th: Laurel, Mississippi at The Reserve, 401 Central Avenue - tel: (601) 649 2822

Freedom Creek, Willie King's debut album on Rooster Blues Records, was King's powerful introduction into the wider music and blues world. Not only was the album acclaimed by critics worldwide, it also received awards from Living Blues Magazine for Best Male Blues Artist (2001), Best Blues Album (2000) and Best Contemporary Blues Album (2000).

Willie King was born in Prairie Point, MS, in 1943. After his father left the home, Willie and his siblings were raised by his grandparents, who were local sharecroppers. Music was important to the King family - Willie's grandfather was a gospel singer, and his absent father was an amateur blues musician. Young Willie made a diddley bo by nailing a baling wire to a tree in the yard. By age 9, he had a one-string guitar that he could bring indoors to play at night.

In 1967, Willie King moved to Chicago in an attempt to make more money than he could down South. After a year spent on the West and South Sides, he returned to Old Memphis, Alabama, just across the border from the Mississippi Prairie. A salesman - of shoes, cologne, and other frivolities - Willie traveled the rural roads hawking goods and talking politics. Choosing not to work under the "old system" of unequal treatment, King joined the civil rights movement near the end of the decade.

In 1987, a chance meeting at a festival in Eutaw, Alabama, blew Rooster Blues founder Jim O'Neal away: According to O'Neal, King's "juke-joint musical style and political lyrics knocked me down." The two kept in touch for the next 13 years, during which O'Neal relocated his label, and King concentrated on his own community, forging relationships with local youth through a blues education program, through his organization The Rural Members Association.

The Rural Members Association has sponsored classes in music, woodworking, food preservation, and other African-American traditions, and has provided transportation, legal assistance, and other services for the needy over the past two decades. In recent years he's been sponsoring a festival on the creek, which is known as The Freedom Creek Festival. Willie explains, "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 . . ."

King's follow up, Living In a New World, is nothing short of spectacular. Produced by Jim O'Neal and recorded at Easley Studio in Memphis, the album reminds the listener of Curtis Mayfield while allowing RL Burnside fans to rejoice as well.

In addition to the two CD's on the Rooster Blues label, Willie has also two independently recorded CDs - Walkin' the Walk, Talkin' the Talk which was recorded with local Alabama bluesman "Birmingham" George Conner, and the widely acclaimed I Am The Blues. His latest release was recorded live at Bettie's Place, a deep South rural juke joint. Entitled Jukin' At Bettie's, this CD is now available online at Willie King's CD Store, and can be downloaded from iTunes and other digital distributors.

CONTACT For questions, comments, booking or any other information, please send us an email or phone in the USA at (205) 752 6263.

	Freedom Creek Festival 2008

	VIDEOS "The Real Baptizing" by Southern Foodways Alliance "Terrorized" Monologue by Robert Mugge
	PHOTOS Tuscaloosa News photos by Robert Sutton
Willie King at home on Freedom Creek, Old Memphis, Alabama (Photo courtesy of Joel Beeson)		Willie King at the King Biscuit Festival 2003 in Helena, Arkinsas (Photo courtesy of Jeff Horton)
Willie King to play at the second Morris Dees Award ceremony to be held in New York city on 15 November 2006 nominations for "Traditional Album of the Year " and "Traditonal Blues Male Artist of the Year" in the Blues Foundation's prestigious Blues Music Awards Willie King selected as one the House of Blues Artists to Watch Willie King inducted into the Howlin' Wolf Hall of Fame - see photos of the event here. Special thanks to the Howlin' Wolf Blues Society and David Childs for the photos.) Willie's latest CD "Jukin' At Betties" - available at Willie King's CD Store now!!!!! . There's lots of great reviews on the web, including Bad Dog Blues and UK-based Blues Freepress. Willie King wins the 2004 Living Blues Magazine award for "Blues Artist of the Year" and is nominated for "Best Live Performer" Willie King nominated for W. C. Handy award as "Traditional Male Artist" of the year Willie King appears in Martin Scorsese's movie Feel Like Going Home aired nationwide on PBS and now available on DVD and video Winner of Living Blues Magazine Best Blues Artist, Best Song (for Terrorized on Living In A New World) and Best Cover Art awards 2003 Browse the Alabama State Council on the Arts pages for some cool presentations. There's plenty of record reviews out there, including Delta Snake Daily Blues, All About Jazz, mnblues, the Boston Phoenix and Rockzillaworld.
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