Having heard 'When a Man Takes the Blues' and 'Poor Bob's Blues' I'm inclined to at least say maybe.
Great stuff, easily in the delta blues idiom, but also very distinctive - even eccentric in places.
http://www.keithpurtell.com/kthings/body_rpw.htm
― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 21 May 2010 17:45 (fifteen years ago)
Love this guy, though I own precious little of his recorded output. There's such a great free-ness in his playing. I have Louisiana Blues (the Takoma one) and The Legacy Of The Blues Vol. 9, which was part of a series of records that accompanied Samuel Charters' book of the same name. Would highly recommend that book btw if it's still in print. As well as an interview with Williams, it's full of great guys like Bukka White, Lightnin Hopkins, Champion Jack Dupree etc.
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:45 (fifteen years ago)
Oh wait, he has his own chapter in Guralnick's Feel Like Going Home, that book is awesome too.
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:46 (fifteen years ago)
It's a crime that blues books and discographies still neglect Robert Pete Williams.
Haha, so this is basically not totally true, but I do agree with a lot of what that guy wrote about his playing on that site you linked to.
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:51 (fifteen years ago)
Damn there is some great youtube stuff out there for this man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfk5gs9x5Jk
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:54 (fifteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOH7ebGkhQ
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:55 (fifteen years ago)
That second one is really great!
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:57 (fifteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSKGwGZYOc0
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 18:58 (fifteen years ago)
Watching that last one makes me think of Ali Farka Toure.
― Vision Creation Mansun (NickB), Friday, 21 May 2010 19:02 (fifteen years ago)
I can definitely hear similarities between Williams [and Patton & Blind Lemon Jefferson] and some of the African sounds, both folk & popular. Some of the guitarists & electric thumb piano players apparently use many of the same scales & intervals as some of the folk blues cats 'n' kittens.
...and thanks for the vids!
― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 21 May 2010 19:18 (fifteen years ago)
*bump*
I was getting deeply involved with the recordings from Angola over the weekend. These tunes tend to support the notion that ol' RObert is in fact WAY under-rated.
Besides that, Captain Beefheart covered his tune 'Grown So Ugly.' There.
― ImprovSpirit, Monday, 24 May 2010 15:58 (fifteen years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AdhY7XQn9Q
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:12 (thirteen years ago)
^^ incld story about robt pete shooting a man
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:14 (thirteen years ago)
his guitar style is really just incredible. some of the most hypnotic playing i can think of, one of my alltime favorite players.
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:17 (thirteen years ago)
awesome clip - any idea where it's from?
― ḉrut (crüt), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:21 (thirteen years ago)