Big Bill Broonzy:  1893 - 1958

Big Bill Broonzy built his reputation on a bedrock of virtuoso skills - as a guitar player extraordinaire, accomplished singer, and prolific songwriter. He became a leading figure in pre-World War II blues, ultimately incorporating rural Mississippi blues with a more refined, big city sound that called Chicago home. Broonzy articulated his songs with a warm, rich vocal tone and clear diction while his brisk and inventive guitar picking became intrinsic lessons to aspiring guitarists everywhere. He was also one of the first blues artists to make it big overseas, the orginal “blues ambassador,” undoubtedly influencing a whole new generation of British blues rockers a decade later.

William Lee Conley Broonzy, along with his twin sister, were the thirteenth and fourteenth of seventeen children, born June 26, 1893 in Scott, Mississippi. The Broonzys were sharecroppers and Bill’s father, Frank, was a deacon at the local Baptist church. The family worked the Delta plantations until Bill turned eight, then moved to Langdale, Arkansas, lured by the promise of better food and work.

Bill’s passion for music was galvanized by an older street musician who played a cigar box fiddle. Before long young Broonzy had made his own homemade fiddle and was sneaking off to the nearby woods to practice, away from the pious eyes and ears of his strict parents. Any music outside of a Baptist hymn was considered devil’s music. Bill persevered with his fiddle and earned tips at local dances and picnics. By the age of twenty-one he was married and had put his fiddle aside, set on becoming a preacher. Yet when faced with the choice of preaching or earning money, he opted for the obvious. As Bill once told Alan Lomax: “But Christian’s one thing and money’s another.”

Broonzy answered the call at fish fries and local dances. Often tagged “too good” to play for blacks, he was coerced into shows for white people. The army drafted him in 1917, sending him to fight in the trenches of France. Two years later he returned to Arkansas with a bigger sense of the outside world. The oppressiveness of the south only rankled him and Bill knew the only answer was to leave. One night in January, 1920 he caught a freight train north and never looked back.

It was a period of mass migration of rural blacks to northern cities searching for better fortunes. Jazz and blues musicians alike were landing in Chicago and the climate was right for a potential blues career. Broonzy took various jobs as a foundry molder, cook, and train porter and eventually fell in with other musicians who encouraged him to learn guitar. He applied himself dutifully from then on, playing the nightclubs and gin mills of Chicago’s South Side by night while hanging on to his day jobs to make ends meet.

Those early days saw Broonzy playing ragtime and hokum, fervently spurring dancers to the floor with tunes like “Pig Meat Strut,” “Brownskin Shuffle,” and “Saturday Night Rub.” His first recording was “House Rent Stomp” for Paramount Records in 1927. This led to a bustle of recordings for different labels well into the 1930s in addition to session guitar work for other Chicago-based blues legends like Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red, and Sonny Boy Williamson. Though he never saw much money for his own records. The sides sold well, but record executives usually pocketed the royalties, leaving Broonzy bitter about the industry. Other blues performers were recording his songs, giving nothing back in return. Later in his career, as a mentor for young up-and-coming blues talents like Muddy Waters, Bill would teach them to guard against such contractual cheating.

Fame materialized in the form of two New York City concerts in 1938 and 1939. John Hammond was putting together a collection Carnegie Hall performances called “From Spirituals to Swing” and wanted Robert Johnson to participate. When Hammond learned that Johnson had died several weeks earlier Broonzy was brought in as a replacement. The shows were a critical success, his first in front of a white audience, and brought him notice as a figurehead of Chicago blues.

With his star rising Broonzy’s style matured into a more country-flavored blues. He recorded both solo and with sidemen like Joshua Altheimer, Blind John Davis, and Memphis Slim. He was at the peak of his compositional powers, penning hundreds of songs on order from the record company, including hits like “Key to the Highway,” “Medicine Man Blues,” “Just a Dream,” “Lookin’ For My Baby,” and “Make My Getaway,” Broonzy was deemed an accomplished songwriter of country meets big city blues.

Songs seemed to flow relentlessly until the late 40s when tastes in blues were changing to a more amplified, less personalized sound. Big Bill’s blues were steadily shoved aside, but his extensive state-side touring was already leading to foreign pastures. In 1951 Broonzy traveled to England to perform and discovered fresh audiences appreciative of his traditional brand of country blues. This led to added renown and future touring in the rest of Europe, shaping Broonzy into a kind of legendary blues ambassador, and eventually allowing other blues artists to tour there successfully. In the process he transformed his image into a folk revivalist, wearing the workman’s overalls of his cotton field roots and playing the traditional tunes and spirituals that these new audiences craved.

It was a role he prospered at during the 1950s, in concerts and on recordings, effectively linking the bookends of his four decades as a blues artist. In 1957 Broonzy was diagnosed with lung and throat cancer, but it didn’t stop him from continued performing, even if it pained him. He died in August of 1958 at the age of sixty five. By Tim Kirker

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