Biography

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With Louis Myers, Dave Myers, Little Mac Simmons and Big Moose Walker!

Blues vocalist Willie Buck was born in 1937 in the small town of Houston, Mississippi. Willie performed on what became known as the “Chittlin Circuit” bouncing between Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North & South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Shortly after developing his reputation, Willie migrated to Chicago in 1954 where he truly immersed himself in the Chicago Blues scene and became a real force on “Maxwell Street”. Willie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Chicago in the summer of 2004. The Life I Love was recorded in 1982 and was issued then in a very limited edition LP. The CD features previously unissued live tracks totaling 65 minutes of genuine Chicago blues.
A historical first of the three albums Willie Buck has recorded for Delmark.

Willie Buck
The Life I Love
Delmark DE 805

Willie Buck has been leading his own bands in Chicago for over 40 years. He's been on the scene since his arrival in Chicago as a teenager in the midst of the heyday of Chicago blues in 1953. By the early '80s he decided to put together an album. The result was tough Chicago blues performed by some of the best musicians in the business at that time. Willie Buck's only LP release became something of a collector's item over the years. The fact that it's being reissued almost 30 years later (augmented with a handful of live tracks from the same era) is a real treat for fans of unadulterated Chicago blues. And Willie Buck is still out there in the trenches, unbending in his devotion to the classic Chicago blues sound, and bringing it back to where it all began. Complete notes by Scott Dirks enclosed.

1. She's All Right 2:54
2. How Can I Be Nice To You 5:24
3. I Live The Life I Love 2:27
4. I've Got A Right To Love My Baby 4:34
5. Champagne And Reefer 4:05
6. There's A Time 3:35
7. Everything's Gonna Be Alright 3:44
8. Sweet Sixteen 2:59
9. Found My Baby Gone 3:45
10. Nineteen Years Old 4:49
11. I Want You To Love Me 3:30
12. Got My Mojo Workin' 3:29
Live
13. Sugar Sweet 3:48
14. Don't Go No Further 4:40
15. Checkin' Up On My Baby 2:24
16. Just To Be With You 6:28
17. Blues Had A Baby 2:21

Willie Buck, vocals
Little Mac Simmons, Dimestore Fred, harmonica
Louis Myers, John Primer, guitar
Big Moose Walker, keyboards
Dave Myers, bass
Jerry Porter, drums
1 - 12 recorded October 4, 1982
13-17 recorded between 1982 and 1985.

Send for free catalog of jazz & blues:
Delmark Records, 4121 N. Rockwell,
Chicago, IL 60618
www.delmark.com
CP 2010 Delmark Records


1. She's All Right 2:54 (McKinley Morganfield, Watertoons, BMI)
2. How Can I Be Nice To You 5:24 (William Crawford, BMI)
3. I Live The Life I Love 2:27 (Willie Dixon, Hoochie Coochie Music, BMI)
4. I've Got A Right To Love My Baby 4:34 (King/Ling, Universal Music Careers, BMI)
5. Champagne And Reefer 4:05 (McKinley Morganfield, Watertoons, BMI)
6. There's A Time 3:35
7. Everything's Gonna Be Alright 3:44 (Walter Jacobs, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
8. Sweet Sixteen 2:59 (Nugetre, Unichappell Music Inc., BMI)
9. Found My Baby Gone 3:45 (Reed/Bracken, Conrad Music/Seeds of Reed Music, BMI)
10. Nineteen Years Old 4:49 (James Oden, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
11. I Want You To Love Me 3:30 (McKinley Morganfield, Watertoons, BMI)
12. Got My Mojo Workin' 3:29 (Preston Foster, Dare Music Inc., BMI)
Live
13. Sugar Sweet 3:38 (Mel London, Arc Music Corp./Lonmel Publ. Inc., BMI)
14. Don't Go No Further 4:40 (Willie Dixon, Hoochie Coochie Music, BMI)
15. Checkin' Up On My Baby 2:24 (Willie Williamson, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
16. Just To Be With You 6:28 (Bernard Roth, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
17. Blues Had A Baby 2:21 (Morganfield/McGhee, Watertoons Music/Walter Brownie McGhee Publ. Co., BMI)

Album Production: Robert G. Koester
1-12 Recorded by S. Gallo at Sky Hero Productions
Photos courtesy Willie Buck
Design: Dave Forte, ForDzign

Other Delmark albums of interest:
Junior Wells, Southside Blues Jam (628) with Louis Myers
Blues Hit Big Town (649) with Muddy Waters, Louis and Dave Myers
On Tap (635) with Big Moose Walker
Little Walter, The Blues World Of (648) with Muddy Waters
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Look On Yonder's Wall (614) with Dave Myers
J. B. Hutto, Hawk Squat (617) with Sunnyland Slim, Dave Myers
Eddy Clearwater, Boogie My Blues Away (678) with Little Mac Simmons
Roosevelt Sykes, Feel Like Blowing My Horn (632) with Dave Myers
Robert Jr. Lockwood, Steady Rollin' Man (630) with Louis and Dave Myers
Sweet Home Chicago (618) with Magic Sam, Luther Allison, Louis Myers
Chicago Ain't Nothin' But A Blues Band (624) with Little Mac Simmons
Shirley Johnson, Killer Diller (757) with John Primer

Send for free catalog of jazz & blues:
Delmark Records, 1 800 684 3480, 4121 N. Rockwell,
Chicago, IL 60618
www.delmark.com
CP 2010 Delmark Records

Ask anyone who has spent any time in the trenches of the Chicago blues scene
about Willie Buck, and you'll hear the same things: he's one of the last of
the old-school blues singers, one of the few guys who has a real handle on
the classic Chicago blues from the '50s, a hard worker who over the years
carved out a niche for himself in the south and west side blues joints. Ask
someone outside the Chicago scene about Willie Buck, and you're just as
likely to get another answer: Who?

Willie Buck has been leading his own bands in Chicago - featuring some of
Chicago's top blues talent - for over 40 years. And he's been on the scene
since his arrival in Chicago as a teenager in the midst of the heyday of Chicago blues in 1953. Buck was born Willie Crawford in "the quarter" of the small town of Houston, Mississippi (the nearest 'big town' was Tupelo, about 40 mile away) in 1937, second youngest of eight children. His father was a minister, as were several uncles, but he says a religious upbringing didn't deter anyone in the family from playing the
blues. Willie was initially influenced by older musicians in his own family; "My sister, she'd sing and play guitar, and I had a cousin that played guitar. Matter of fact, two of my sisters played guitar. His earliest exposure to professional blues musicians came via B.B. King, who made regular stops at a place known as Sally's Juke Joint in Willie's hometown early in his career. Buck was too young to get in the door, but he'd sit outside and listen. "I never will forget, the last time he came to my
hometown. Some of the guys, they got a little jealous, and cut his tires. He
never did come back no more!" Local musicians played Sally's as well; "They
had a lot of 'em around there, another guy named Bennie used to play there,
and another guy named Walter. This was about the only big club that was
there, somebody every week playing there." The family also had a wind-up
Victrola at home, and Willie was able to hear some of the big names in the
blues on records; "We used to have Big Boy Crudup, I remember one record he
made, 'I Love Your Mellow Peaches', I used to play that all the time." Buck
also heard B.B. King broadcasting from Memphis on WDIA; "I used to listen to
him on that station, he'd come on around 12:00, 12:15 in the afternoon, advertising Pepticon. He would sing that, 'Pepticon sure is good!'".

After moving to Chicago in 1953, the still-teenaged Willie was able to wrangle his way into the clubs and make some vital early connections; "My brother-in-law was real good friends with Muddy and this guy that used to run this radio station, WOPA. I believe it was, Big Bill Hill. He was on the air five days a week. And by my brother-in-law being such good friends with everyone, they used to let me in the clubs, at least until the owner saw me and kicked me out! We used to see Muddy down at 35th and Indiana, Smitty's Corner. And on 43rd Street, it was called Pepper's, he used to play in there a lot. I was just hanging with him, because I enjoyed what was going on. He'd go up and talk to the guys and say 'He's with me, I'm responsible', and a lot of times I'd get to stay." By 1954, Buck began making some inroads into the Chicago scene. "They'd let me come up and do a song sometimes, and it just kept going from there."

But for the most part, music was only a sideline for Willie Buck. He
started a family, and made his living as an auto mechanic, confining his
blues-making to an occasional appearance sitting in at neighborhood clubs
through the '50s and '60s. One memorable night from the mid '60s: "There
used to be a club at Orleans and Locust, on the second floor. I got a chance
to sing with Little Walter at that club. Dave Myers was with him that night. That was the last time I saw Little Walter, I believe he died a couple of weeks after that show."
Around 1970, Willie decided to get more serious about his music, and started
occasionally putting together his own bands for the first time and booking
occasional gigs on the south and west sides. These were comparatively slow
times for live blues in Chicago, and as a result Willie was able to assemble
bands using some of the very finest players in Chicago, many of whom were
then scuffling for gigs. "I used to hire Fred Below on drums, we'd go pick
him up. Odie Payne played with me, as a matter of fact, Odie Payne played
on 'Disco Blues'" [one of Willie's mid '70s single releases]. Among other
notables who worked in Willie's bands during this era were guitarists Louis
Myers, Eddie Taylor, Sammy Lawhorn, Magic Slim and Byther Smith, pianist and
long-time friend Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, harp player Big Leon Brooks, and
other Chicago stalwarts. To help promote his gigs, Willie produced and
released a few singles in the '70s, and by the early '80s decided to put
together an album on his own Bar-Bare label. By this time Willie's main
influence Muddy Waters had been absent from the Chicago club scene for some
time, and Willie had made a name for himself as one of the foremost purveyors of Muddy's legacy, so it was natural for him to lean heavily on Muddy's material. The result was a collection of tough Chicago blues performed by some of the best in the business at that time.

With almost no distribution or promotion, and a limited number of copies
pressed, Willie Buck's one and only full-length release became something of
a collector's item over the years. So the fact that it's finally being reissued and widely distributed almost 30 years after it was recorded - and augmented with a handful of DIY live tracks from the same era - is a real treat for fans of unadulterated Chicago blues.

Willie Buck has continued to serve up the same brand of deeply rooted blues
in Chicago's south and west side taverns and clubs over the intervening
years, and his profile has gradually risen as the ranks of his fellow hard-core bluesmen have dwindled. (He also received a bit of mainstream attention when he was featured briefly in the Academy Award nominated 1994 documentary film "Hoop Dreams" - he's the father of one of the main characters.) And Willie Buck is still out there in the trenches, unbending in his devotion to the classic Chicago blues sound, and bringing it back to where it all began. -Scott Dirks, March, 2010