From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Jun 26, 2002  1:12 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Big Bill Broonzy
 
BIG BILL BROONZY (By Jean-Marc Pezet)

Born William Lee Conley Broonzy, 26 June 1893 or 1898, Scott, Mississippi
Died 15 August 1958, Chicago, Illinois

Big Bill Broonzy is a key figure in blues history, being a major part in
defining the Chicago Blues style that laid the bed for postwar bluesmen such
as Muddy Waters.
The Broonzy family (16 children) moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Big
Bill worked at the farm. He took an early interest in music, building himself
a fiddle and getting a musical education from current musical trends of the
pre-WW I time such as Medicine Show Jug bands. He was drafted by the
end of World War I and even came to France.
Upon his demobilisation, Big Bill travelled the urban north and settled in
Chicago by 1920, where he met several bluesmen. It was at this time,
being in his late 20s, that he started learning guitar.
Being a natural born musician, he soon made his debut recording in 1926,
and the 1930s would prove to be his best years ever (until 1942), being one
of the best selling bluesmen of his time.
He was influential in defining the country-blues style that emerged from
Chicago, also known now as the "Bluebird Sound", with artists such as
Washboard Sam (his half-brother and a real forefather of rock 'n' roll) or
Jazz Gillum.
After WW II, Big Bill resumed his career with less success, but found a
new audience in white people. He was also one of the first bluesmen to
visit Europe in 1951.
He died of throat cancer in Chicago, on August 15, 1958.

Recommended listening:
Any compilation which features 1930s material.
One particular favourite track of mine is "Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me
Down" from 1935, country-blues as its best!

Autobiography: Big Bill Blues : William Broonzy's story as told to Yannick
Bruynoghe. New York : Da Capo Press, 1992. (Original edition 1955.)