Blind Wille McTell King of the Georgia Blues

The Georgia Blues Guitar Style On 12 String Guitar

The King of Georgia Blues", William Samuel McTier was born in Thomson, Georgia, in 1898. Blind Willie was taught at schools for the blind, where he learnt how to play harmonica and accordion in addition to discovering, composing, and notating music in Braille. Right after finding learning guitar, he took up the 12 string variety, preferring it for its volume. He left home in the 1920s to take up the life of a "songster," playing throughout Georgia and getting all the way up to New York. 

With his twelve-string guitar on his back, Blind Willie McTell moved from Maine to Missouri and clear across the Mississippi River. He might wander through the New York City train system in the dark without any misgivings. The man who's been called 'the human jukebox' found almost every musical style in his repertoire this way, along with various ways of playing them.

McTell's pseudonym "Georgia Sam's" song opens Dylan's Highway 61, who naturally, penned a terrible eponymous ode to Blind Willie and the world he resided in, which is readily available on the bootleg tapes. Walk over to the corner of Luckie and Cone streets in downtown Atlanta and you will not discover much today, simply a car park, a parking lot and a corner store. Back in 1940, when the Tabernacle down on Luckie Street was still the Third Baptist Church, John and Ruby Lomax were residing at the Robert Fulton Hotel, a hulking mass of red brick that overlooked that street corner. 

Acoustic Travelers (Jim Bruce and Ken Mayall) Play 'Statesboro' Blues' by Willie McTell

Blind Willie McTell’s music is characterized by his clear voice and twelve-string finger picking technique. His crisp, clean guitar lines intertwine with and underline his lyrics. Through his repertoire McTell was able to cater to a wide audience, being adept at playing blues, ragtime, gospel, pop, and country material. While none of his records was a hit, he was able to record prolifically by creating a different pseudonym for each recording scout he encountered.

William Samuel McTell was born on May 5,1901 in Thompson, Georgia. Despite lifelong blindness McTell knew his way around several major cities, including New York City’s subway system, and could distinguish between different denominations of bank notes. There was some confusion over his surname; some sources claimed his real name was “McTear” but a teacher at a blind school he attended inadvertently changed it to “McTell”, misunderstanding Willie’s diction. However, in a 1977 interview, his wife Kate McTell said that somebody on his father’s side of the family disguised their name because they were “big whiskey still people.”

Blind Willie McTell learned the guitar from his mother during his early teens. Through his teenage years and early twenties he played in various touring carnivals and shows, including the John Roberts Plantation Show. During this time he also attended various schools for the blind in New York and Georgia where he learned to read Braille. He recorded his first sides for the Victor company in 1927 in Atlanta. These would be the first of many recordings by McTell under various names.

Recorded Prolifically Under Many Names

During the late twenties and thirties, McTell appeared before every recording scout who came to Atlanta with his guitar and a new persona. He recorded as “Blind Sammie” for Columbia, “Georgia Bill” for OKeh, “Red Hot Willie Glaze” for Bluebird, and “Blind Willie” for Vocalion. He also recorded and interviewed with John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1940, but that session remained unreleased because the Lomax-es didn’t care for McTell’s style. Most of Willie’s records were solo vocal numbers with his own guitar accompaniment; he also recorded with Curly Weaver, Buddy Moss, and Ruth Day.

Blind Willie McTell married Ruth Kate Williams in 1934. Willie traveled constantly, while Kate stayed home pursuing a career as an army nurse. In a 1977 interview, Kate McTell recalled Willie’s response when she asked why he traveled so frequently, “He said ‘Baby, I was born a rambler. I’m gonna ramble until I die, but I’m preparing you to live after I’m gone’. He sure did.