* En anglais uniquement
The longtime drummer with the Muddy Waters Band, bluesman
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith was born in Helena, AK, on January 19, 1936; raised by his sharecropper grandparents, as a child his neighbors included the likes of
Robert Nighthawk and
Pinetop Perkins. At 17 he traveled to Chicago to visit his mother, and never returned home; instead
Smith taught himself harmonica and drums, and with harpist
Clifton James and guitarist Bobby Lee Burns formed a blues trio. Upon marrying his first wife in 1955,
Smith agreed to retire from performing, but within a year he was backing Arthur "Big Boy" Spires; after a brief attempt at fronting his own band, he returned to his drum kit, joining Hudson Shower's Red Devil Trio. After a few lean years that forced him to go on welfare,
Smith joined
Waters in 1961 and remained with the blues giant until 1980, when he co-founded
the Legendary Blues Band. His first solo recording,
Bag Full of Blues, did not appear until 1995;
Nothin' But the Blues Y'all followed four years later and
Blues from the Heart was issued in fall 2000.
Bluesin' It appeared in 2004 from Electro-Fi while the pleasant
Way Back was released in 2006 by Hightone Records. ~ Jason Ankeny