LITTLE WHITT & BIG BO
Mark Hughes Cobb Staff Writer | The Tuscaloosa News
For a half-century Jolly "Little Whitt" Wells played guitar, both solo and with long-time musical partner "Big Bo" McGee, at Saturday night jukes, box suppers, fish frys, bars, festivals, parties, wherever people wanted to listen and dance.
Wells personalized a Fender Stratocaster, one he said was the first to hit Tuscaloosa, with brown house paint, reflective decals shining out his nickname, and cored dice to tumble on the knobs, for Freddie King-style electric blues.
But it was Delta-style acoustic sounds that helped lift the Ralph-born bluesman, with McGee and touring partners Mike McCracken and Debbie Bond, onto his first plane ride for a European tour, supporting the Whitt-and-Bo disc "Moody Swamp Blues," picked by Great Britain's Blueprint magazine as CD of the year for 1995.
Wells, 83, died Oct. 10. Services will be at 11 a.m. today at Wills' Funeral Service Chapel.
The launch from homegrown players to internationally known bluesmen started with a phone call to guitarist McCracken, around 1983 or '84. At the time, he was working as a photographer for The Tuscaloosa News, but playing blues with his then-wife Bond on weekends and evenings.
"Whitt called the house one day; we thought he was joking," McCracken said. "It kinda sounded like my father's voice. My father grew up where (Whitt) was from. He said 'Hey, y'all wanna play some blues?' "
His guitar sound was like King's, raw and biting, McCracken said, but his sense of humor was purely joyful.
"He'd just light up the room with his smile. Just a fun person to be around. He was the first person I ever saw just lay down on his side, run around in circles while playing guitar."
Wells brought in a singing and harmonica-playing friend: McGee seemed gruff, scary at first, but later turned out to be "a big old teddy bear," McCracken said. Mostly they played electric, until one night when Whitt and Bo were booked to play the Chukker courtyard, as a prelude to John Hammond, who was due up on the main stage later.
"I don't know that I'd ever heard 'em just sit down with a guitar, harmonica and voice ... a real haunting sound," McCracken said. "It took me back in time, sounding like something from the '40s, so traditional sounding, so honest and real.
"Bo was always saying, 'Mike! Take us over to Europe! Let's go tour Europe!' That night I told him, 'Bo, if you wanna go play Europe, play like that, and I'll take you to Europe.' We knew they loved acoustic blues over there."
Working in Mike Shamblin's studio, Little Whitt and Big Bo recorded "Moody Swamp Blues," with McCracken producing. From that came the chance for a 2 1/2-month tour of Europe. McCracken had left the newspaper and been working for BFGoodrich for about nine years. He requested a leave of absence, and "... they thought I was crazy. I said, 'Well, I'll see you later then,' " and quit the job. "I wasn't going to miss the chance."
Neither Wells nor McGee had ever been on a plane before, and Wells suffered a serious phobia about flying. They wound up getting medical inducement to help him sleep through the flights.
"Right up until the minute he got on the plane, I thought he was gonna bolt."
That tour took them through 50 gigs in Ireland, Scotland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and England. In Ireland, they played a late-night TV show where artists such as Eric Clapton had once sat the stage; the next day, on the streets of Dublin, people honked horns and waved in recognition.
"It was another window of Alabama blues culture," said Bond, who co-founded the Alabama Blues Project in part to bring attention to folks such as Wells, McGee, Willie King and Johnny Shines. "They thrived in these backroad, grassroots places without all the attention they deserved."
Wells' house burned down while they were overseas, but musicians held benefit performances to help him back on his feet, as he'd lost everything except guitars and touring clothes.
Wells and McGee continued as a duo, performing again in Europe, and regionally, including festivals such as Tuscaloosa's CityFest and Birmingham's City Stages. But health issues began to slow them down. Then McGee died of a stab wound in 2002; his stepson was charged with the crime. Wells had apparently not played much in recent years.
"We'd been out of touch for a few years, but I'd heard he was in bad shape," McCracken said. "I ran into him in Archibald's, probably about two years ago. He said he was having some trouble with his asthma ... he drove a dump truck for all those years, and I always suspected it was something in that dust."
McCracken wrote on his Facebook page: "As a musician he was a living testimony to the richness of Alabama blues culture. ... Rest in peace Whitt and thank you for sharing your music."
INFO :
Services for famed bluesman Jolly "Little Whitt" Wells set ...
https://www.tuscaloosanews.com
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Cleo "Big Bo" McGee
Charles L. Hughes, University of Wisconsin-Madison :
Cleo "Big Bo" McGee - Encyclopedia of Alabama
encyclopediaofalabama.org
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org
Big Bo McGee (1928-2002) was a blues performer, songwriter, and harmonica player. Never as well-known as some of his contemporaries, he nevertheless benefitted from a resurgence in interest in traditional blues and toured Europe in the 1990s as part of the duo Little Whitt and Big Bo. He later achieved acclaim for his work visiting schools and educating students about the blues.
Bo McGee and Jolly Wells
McGee was born on October 9, 1928, as Cleo McGee, on the border between Emelle, Sumter County, and Porterville, Mississippi. Growing up straddling the state line, McGee later joked that his family could eat breakfast in Alabama and go to sleep in Mississippi. McGee's early musical training came from his grandmother, an experienced harmonica player and performer, who had McGee practice in a closet so he could hear the music better. The inspiration and training from his grandmother helped propel McGee onto the stage at age five, when he began performing at parties, gatherings, and juke joints (all-black nightclubs known for blues music) around the area.
As McGee grew older, he began listening to the recordings of early blues artists such as Washboard Slim and Blind Lemon Jefferson, performers whose popularity helped expose a broader audience to the sounds of rural African American music. McGee's musical tastes were broad, and he also expressed admiration for the "hillbilly" records of more mainstream country stars such as Eddy Arnold and Jimmie Rodgers. McGee's chosen instrument—the harmonica—traditionally had played important roles in both genres, and, as the blues electrified in the 1940s and 1950s, players such as harmonica virtuoso Little Walter provided further inspiration for fans and other harmonica players.
McGee's musical talents did not provide him with a steady income, however; he worked for nearly 40 years as a truck driver, including a stint hauling dangerous chemicals and explosives. During the 1950s, McGee began playing acoustic blues with a fellow driver, Jolly "Little Whitt" Wells; after they both retired from driving, Wells and McGee formed a full-time performing duo, known as Little Whitt and Big Bo. Although they began playing full-time only when well past middle age, Wells and McGee benefited from renewed interest in traditional blues during the latter part of the twentieth century, and they found a growing audience among younger fans who preferred the more authentic sounds of the earlier generations of blues players.
Never as famous as some of their contemporaries, Little Whitt and Big Bo did establish themselves as viable performers on the international blues circuit. In 1995, they toured Europe as part of a multi-act show that included several other American performers. As an acoustic duo with with Little Whitt Wells, McGee and Wells played shows throughout Europe and the United Kingdom and performed on several radio and television broadcasts, including a live session on BBC radio. The success of the European tour led to the 1997 release of the duo's (and McGee's) first album, Moody Swamp Blues, produced by the Alabama Blues Project. This collection featured Wells and McGee playing a combination of well-known blues numbers, along with three of McGee's originals:"Overseas Blues," "The Burning," and "You Go Your Way."
McGee remained an important figure in Alabama blues even after his resurgence in popularity waned in the later 1990s. In one of his most prominent projects, he travelled extensively to schools, performing for students and teaching them about the art and traditions of blues music. For these efforts, McGee received the Alabama Blues Ambassador award, presented by the Alabama Blues Project, in 2000. In 2001, McGee was named the recipient of the Folk Heritage Award, presented by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
On March 3, 2002, McGee was stabbed to death in his Eutaw, Greene County, home; his 22-year-old stepson, Johnny Pebbles, was charged with the killing. The Alabama Blues Society and Alabama Blues Project collaborated to help pay for his funeral, even agreeing to donate the proceeds from their already-scheduled anniversary show in Tuscaloosa.
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