Willie
was born in Prairie Point, MS,
in 1943. After his father left, Willie and his siblings was raised by
his grandparents, 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.
After
his father left, Willie and his
siblings was raised by his grandparents, 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. Ag moved
to Chicago in an attempt to make more money than he could down South.
After a year spent on the West and South Side, 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, eventually associating with the left-wing Highlander Center.
By
the late 1970s, King was writing
what he calls "struggling songs" - political blues tunes.
As King explains "through the music I could reach more people,
get ’em to listen." Yet as his rollicking blues style attests,
King still knows how to have a good time. He played the juke circuit
and bootlegged whiskey on the side, resorting to popular blues covers
when the "struggling songs" upset a close-minded audience.
King
work a lot in his own community,
forging relationships with local youth through a blues education
program and 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 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 .
. .
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.
