Willie Buck

American master blues vocalist William Crawford, better known as Willie Buck, was born in 1937 in the small town of Houston, Mississippi. When he was a boy, he spent most of his time working at a local paper mill making $5 during the day and honing his voice by night. He began his craft singing in the most popular form of the day: Rock & Roll. Despite his vigor for the newly developing artform, his passions leaned more towards the more traditional sound of the delta: Blues. He performed on what became known as the Chittlin Circuit between Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North & South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Shortly after developing a reputation, Willie took his first trip to Chicago, the blues Mecca, where he got to meet Muddy Waters. Waters was a friend of his cousin who Willie stayed with while he was in Chicago. That meeting furthered his resolve and pushed him deeper into the music scene. Willie traveled to Chicago a few more times. Though he still wasn't of age, Willie snuck into a club called Silvio's where he got to hang out with the blues masters of the time. He finally migrated to Chicago permanently in 1954.

Once here, he truly immersed himself in the Chicago Blues scene. He became a real force in the "Maxwell Street" blues legacy which boasts of the raw blues talent that it has produced. It was also here that he made his first recording titled Talk What You Know, Don't Say What You Hear, a recording which has since been lost to time. This also marked the beginning of his overseas travel to Canada, Mexico, France and Amsterdam. Being a family man, Willie stepped back from recording new music until 1973 when he recorded the Get Down And Disco To The Blues b/w How Can I Be Nice To You single. After another single in 1975 came the full length LP titled It's Alright, It's Alright in 1977. It has become an acclaimed collector's item. (Delmark Records re-released it as The Life I Love.)

Willie spent the rest of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s performing. In 2003 he released his first CD: I Wanna Be Loved, a limited release on his own Bar-Bare Records Label. In 2004 he was inducted in the Chicago Blues Hall Of Fame and he was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by former Mayor Richard M. Daley. In 2011 came an homage to Muddy Waters titled Songs for Muddy: The Madrid Sessions. The following year came Cellphone Man.