HIP LINKCHAIN

                          Willie Richard es el auténtic nom de HIP LICKHAIN, de difícil traducció, li deien per la forma de moure's i perque sempre duie cadenas al volant del seu coll.Segurament que no es conegut per molts dels afeccionats al Blues, peró hem de dir que es un home que va grabar uns cuants albums, tots ells amb diferents artistes de qualitat reconeguda com son Jimmy Dawkins, Jimmy Rogers, ó Barrelhouse Chuck . Era un bon compositor, i també es dedicaba a fer covers tant en les seves actuacions com en les grabacions. 
                                      

Recording 1987 - Hip Linkchain guitar vocals - Rick Kirch- guitar Barrelhouse Chuck piano -Frank Bandy bass -Robert "Huckleberry Hound" Wright

                                        

Grabado en 1982 junto a JIMMY DAWKINS 

                                         

Hip Linkchain - from the album Eddie C. Campbell With bonus tracks by Hip Lankchan/Baddest Cat On The Block, JSP Records

Recorded in Chicago 1976.

                                          

Recorded for a French tv channel at the Artesian Lounge in Chicago. Cancer struck guitarist Hip Linkchain down before he could shed his status as a Chicago blues journeyman. With a fine album on the Dutch Black Magic logo, Airbusters, to his credit shortly before he died, Linkchain might have managed to move up a rung or two in the city's blues pecking order had he lived longer.

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Born Willie Richard in Mississippi, his odd stage name stemmed from being dubbed "Hipstick" as a lad. (White residents of the area gave his seven-foot-tall dad the name Linkchain because he wore logging chains around his neck). Dad and older brother Jesse both played the blues, and Hip followed in their footsteps. He heard Elmore James, Little Milton, and Sonny Boy Williamson while living in the Delta before relocating to Chicago during the early '50s.

Linkchain made inroads on the competitive Chicago circuit during the '50s and '60s, playing with harpists Dusty Brown, Willie Foster, and Lester Davenport. His own band, the Chicago Twisters, was fronted by a very young Tyrone Davis in 1959. Linkchain cut a handful of very obscure 45s for the tiny Lola and Sanns logos prior to the emergence of his debut domestic album for Teardrop Records, Change My Blues, circa 1981. Bill Dahl

Hip Linkchain (November 10, 1936 – February 13, 1989) was an American Chicago blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.

His best known numbers were "Change My Blues" and "That Will Never Do". Allmusic

described him as a "solid, no-frills bluesman". Another music journalist noted, "his composer's talents put him much above the average bluesmen".Linkchain variously worked with Lester Davenport, Pinetop Perkins, Tyrone Davis, and Little Walter.

He was born Willie Richard in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. His stage name was in deference to his father's nickname of 'Linkchain', due to his habit of sporting logging chains around his neck, and the boy's own childhood nickname of 'Hipstick'. He was inspired by the blues playing of Sonny Boy Williamson II, Elmore James and Little Milton, all of whom Linkchain heard in the Mississippi delta, prior to him relocating to Chicago, Illinois, in 1954.He had been raised in Louise, Mississippi, and picked cotton before his move north.Linkchain found regular employment playing blues guitar in the clubs of Chicago throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and he variously worked with the harmonica players, Lester Davenport, Dusty Brown, and Willie Foster.

By 1959, Linkchain had formed his own band known as the Chicago Twisters, who had Tyrone Davis as their frontman. Linkchain recorded spasmodically, mainly for small independent record labels based in Chicago, and a handful of his singles were released in the 1960s. It was not until 1983 that Linkchain saw his debut album issued, when the small Teardrop Records outfit released Change My Blues. The recording saw Linkchain play alongside Pinetop Perkins (piano), Rich Kirch (guitar), Right Hand Frank Bandy (bass) and Fred Grady (drums)

His best known album, Airbusters, was originally released by the Netherlands based Black Magic record label in 1988. It was re-issued on the Evidence label, but Linkchain was to experience only a short period of fame, before his death from cancer in Chicago in February 1989