Memphis Willie B.

Biography He was born William Borum in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Willie B. developed away from a disciplined jug band style and played at various locations with Robert Johnson, Garfield Akers, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Willie Brown, who periodically travelled up from the Mississippi Delta to play. He soon returned to working in the Memphis area, in the company of Little Son Joe, Will Shade and Joe Hill Louis. After being discharged from the Army, he discovered it hard to find work as a musician and eventually took up other employment. He returned to the music industry in the early 1960s and recorded sufficient material for two albums for Bluesville Records in Memphis in 1961.

Willie B. once stated, "A blues is about something that's real. It's about what a man feels when his wife leaves him, or about some disappointment that happens to him that he can't do anything about. That's why none of these young boys can really sing the blues. They don't know about the things that go into a blues".

He abruptly stopped playing in the late 1960s, and little was heard of him until his death, in 1993, at the age of 81.

Compilation

Year Title Record label 2012 A Mess of Blues Black Cat