WILLIE GREEN
Cross Creek | : Willie Green ha estado tratando a los clientes en el restaurante de fama mundial eso es en Cross Creek a su estilo de blues-estilo de Delta desde hace más de una década. nacido en Alabama verde aprendió el blues como un adolescente cuando se colaba por las noches y subirse a un tren de carga a escuchar algunos de los maestros del Blues que tocaban en los garitos de Montgomery. Autodidacta en la armónica y la guitarra, que ha compartido escenario con Arlo Guthrie, John Hammond y Eric Clapton. Pero Green también ha sufrido algunos momentos difíciles, incluyendo combates con el alcoholismo, abuso de drogas, la falta de vivienda y, más recientemente, el cáncer de próstata. Hace poco más de 10 años, el propietario del restaurante conoció a Willie tocando y le ofreció un concierto tocando para los clientes. Él ha sido un fijo desde entonces.
Blues Legend Willie Green's 75th @ Cafe11 "Born Without a Birth Certificate" from made with aloe on Vimeo.
On October 15th, 1935, or there abouts, a baby boy was born in a rural Alabama sharecropper’s cabin. His mother Mattie and father Willie Green Sr. named him Willie Grant Green. The Grant comes from the famous Union general. Willie doesn’t know the name of the little farm hamlet, only that it was near the city of Montgomery. He doesn’t have any family photos or even a birth certificate. Only that his family were sharecroppers and travelling migrant workers. He was lucky to go school for a of couple years, but was soon pulled from the 4th grade to start working in the fields, picking everything from peanuts to potatoes. Travelling around the southeast in the back of a truck, field to field, farm to farm, he picked vegetables and fruits through his teenage years and into his twenties. By then he had left the family following the crop harvest north as far as Maine, he met a girl there, a local farmer’s daughter. He says he always wished he would have stayed, but time to head back south: more crops coming in the spring. His brother was called to Vietnam. Willie never saw him again.
While still at home as a teenager, Willie would sneak out at night, sometimes catching a ride on a passing freight into Montgomery to the juke joints. He wanted to hear the music, the BLUES music, from the greats like John Lee Hooker, Little Walter, Muddy Waters; all those cats getting home before sunrise to the welcome of a belt in the hands of Mama Mattie, who wasn’t fond of the juke joint scene.
One day an old boy gave Willie a harp, and the rest is history. He continued his migrant worker job, with the harp in his back pocket, playing when he could, sitting in with anyone he could. In the 1960s Willie found his way to Florida, were some cousins lived in Pompano Beach. During this time he was called back to Alabama one time. Mama Mattie had passed away on the farm. This was the last time he saw the place and his only relatives there. Willie remembers he inherited her refrigerator, but had no way to haul it home on the Greyhound bus. Back in Florida he found new jobs like pipe laying, driving a pulp wood truck, laying cement roads; anything that made a little dough. Heven started learning to play some guitar to go with the harp. He got to sit in with some of the great blues players travelling through. Cash was king, no bank account needed.
In the early 1970s Willie bought a used Kawasaki race bike. In those days he was known as the “fearless black racer.” If the white boys could do it, he could do it better and faster. Dirt track, drag racing, pulling wheelies; you name it, Willie could do it!
He moved on to Ocala, Florida, seeking work, but Willie saw more hard times,in the late 1980s. Living with buddies under a bridge for a while, the county would throw them blankets for warmth at night, but the “cops were tough on ‘em,” he says. Vagrancy led to some jail time and working on the road crew for ten cents an hour. He got lucky later with a job in the jail library. Funny he says, because he “couldn’t read a lick!”
He started playing with some white rockers after that, with his new band “Willie Green & The Flame.” They knocked the house down show after show. One time doing an opening act for Pat Travers, Willie did four encores with “folks dancin’ on the tables!” Travers lied low for an hour to let things calm down, before appearing on stage. Willie then saw more hard times, mowing lawns between gigs and selling aluminum. Alcohol and crack were prevalent in the hood then.
Willie was living in a pump house in a back yard across the tracks in Ocala when I first met him. He was playing for tips at a restaurant bar and only had three strings on the guitar, but that worked fine for him. He was playing in a corner, tip jar out front, white folks talking and eating while he played. We talked and I took some video and still photos then I told him I would be back. I heard my friend John Hammond was playing at Café Eleven two weeks later. I called Ryan Dettra and said I have the perfect opening act. Willie was frightened at the idea of opening a show for a big crowd again; it had been years. But what a show it was! Willie had two ovations from his new fans, and John Hammond (who coined Willie “The Real Deal” that night) actually called him on stage and backed Willie for a song!! It has been eight good years since then.
Countless road trips, major gigs and festivals all over Florida…that’s when he shares the stories over the road, crossing the miles. Willie has opened for some major acts during this time including Charlie Musselwhite, Maria Muldaur, Tommy Castro, Arlo Guthrie, Robert Cray and Eric Clapton. He has shared the stage with the late Eddie Kirkland and the late “Honeyboy” Edwards. And, thanks to the help of countless Saint Augustine area musicians, has had some of the best backing bands in the country! Players like Rick Levy, Doug Carn, Fats Lewis, Mike Hart, Brad Cooper, Jim Stafford, Chris Woods, JW Gilmore, GITLO, and many others! Artist/musician Thomas Glover W. has given Willie one of his prized hand-carved telecaster guitars. J.J. Grey of MOFRO gave Willie three Gibsons, and invited Willie to play several shows with him. J.J. also appears on Willie’s second album, “Cross Creek Blues”, one of three CDs that Willie has recorded at Eclipse Studio in Saint Augustine.
With the help of local film maker Stuart Bicknell, we produced a full length double music video shot in Saint Johns County at an old Minorcan cabin in the woods. Willie plays two songs on the video and there is a great interview by his good friend, the late Marty Scott.
Willie also became good friends through the years with the late author Stetson Kennedy. He played at Stetson’s events and festivals and Stetson awarded Willie his “Fellow Man & Mother Earth Award.” Willie called Stetson “Pops” and his “white brother.” Willie will play at Stetson’s Celebration of Life Memorial on October 1st. Willie was also recognized by the Florida State Museum in Tallahassee alongside Bo Diddley and Ray Charles recently!
It hasn’t all been good times for Willie This last year he was struck with complications from prostate cancer, diabetes and other ailments. Last February he was hospitalized for months, then into a rehab facility, and now assisted living facility in Ocala. Even with Medicaid help, it has been a tough road, and the bills are in the tens of thousands now. Willie gave up his house he rented and his first car he had owned in years. With the help of Café Eleven, we will host a benefit fund-raiser for Willie with a silent auction on his 76th birthday, October 15th. All the usual suspects are invited to come out and jam with Willie.
He has started playing acoustic solo shows again, too, regularly weekends at the Yearling Restaurant in Cross Creek, Florida. Folks come from miles around now to hear Willie play and tell his stories in the old Florida atmosphere, enjoying fresh “Florida Cracker Cuisine.” Fall is festival season, he will play October 16th as special guest for Florida Harmonica Championship in New Smyrna and October 22nd at the famous Macintosh Festival in the little Florida town of the same name. You will also probably catch him first weekend of November at the Lincolnville Heritage Festival which he has played seven years running right here in Saint Augustine. He will follow that with the annual Saint Johns River Blues Festival November 13th in Palatka. Anyone wanting Willie’s schedule, CD purchases or to donate to Willie’s recovery can check out his website at www.williegreenblues.com. And many, many thanks to all his friends and fans who have helped make all this possible for him through the years. When you hear the blues, think of Willie; think of what it really takes to live the blues…Willie Green, he is “The Real Deal.”
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