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Blues Musician and Songwriter
October 16, 1903-December 17, 1982
 I know Bob Dylan loved Big Joe Williams and Big Joe Williams loved Bob Dylan, and they used to get on the stage at Gerde's and play together. Big Joe and Little Joe or Joe Junior we used to call them. Joe and Bobby told us Bobby used to follow Joe up and down the streets of Chicago, that Big Joe was an inspiration.
-- Victoria Spivey, quoted in BOB DYLAN: AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY by Anthony Scaduto
Both Big Joe Williams and Bob Dylan claimed to have met in Chicago when Bob was fairly young. Big Joe even claimed to have met Dylan in 1947, when young Bobby Zimmerman was about six years old! Another story has them meeting in 1957, when Dylan would have been in high school. In any case, they had probably met by 1960 in Chicago, and Dylan helped Big Joe Williams get a booking at Folk City in New York in the early 1960s, where they played together for two weeks. Dylan played harmonica with Big Joe Williams on the 1963 album Three Kings and a Queen, on the Spivey label.
Big Joe Williams was born in 1903 in Crawford, Mississippi. He spent much of his early career as an itinerant musician, playing at work camps, bars, stores, and juke joints throughout the South. In 1935, he released his first 78 record under his own name, onthe Bluebird label. Big Joe recorded on a number of other labels throughout the 1930s and '40s, including Paramount, Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and Trumpet. Known for his powerful singing, his idiosyncratic approach to playing Delta blues, and his nine-string guitar, Williams was an ornery, tough character who demanded respect. In the 1960, he released his first LP on the Delmark label in Chicago. Big Joe Williams continued performing and recording for the next two decades. He died in 1982.
SELECTED RECORDINGS
PINEY WOODS BLUES, Delmark DL-602, 1960
TOUGH TIMES, Arhoolie 1002, 1960
BLUES ON HIGHWAY 49, Delmark DL-604, 1961
NINE STRING GUITAR BLUES, Delmark DL-627, 1961
MISSISSIPPI'S BIG JOE WILLIAMS, Folkways FS 3820, 1962
BIG JOE WILLIAMS/BLUES FOR 9 STRINGS, Bluesville BV 1056, 1962
THREE KINGS AND A QUEEN, Spivey 1004 (with Victoria Spivey, Roosevelt Sykes, and Lonnie Johnson; includes Bob Dylan on harmonica), 1963
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 about other musicians, writers, and artists who have had an impact on Bob Dylan’s music.
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