June 10-16, 2004

musicpicks

Jody Williams

by Mary Armstrong

blues

"I'm a long way from being a millionaire, but my memories are worth millions!" says Jody Williams. "Folks can see I'm having a good time. I hope that'll rub off on the young players."

This is a whole new philosophy for Williams, but it took him 30 years to get there. In the '50s and '60s he was a fixture on the Chicago blues scene. As a member of Bo Diddley's band and a session musician for Chess Records, Williams' distinctive guitar style helped make hits of many Chess releases. But he found he was spending more time in court than in the clubs, trying to get his due. Frustration mounted. He made up his mind: "I'm gonna leave this [music] alone 'fore I end up killin' somebody." He slid the guitar under the bed and went back to school for electronics.

After 26 years with Xerox, Williams took early retirement and started looking around for another line of work. "One day I listened to some tapes of my band from 1964. I didn't remember that we sounded that good," he chuckles. He took the guitar from under the bed and started loosening up his chops.

"When I got back up on stage the spirit came right back over me!" His first recording in three decades, Return of a Legend, proved the point, winning a WC Handy Award for Best Comeback Recording. Williams is now touring his latest collection of originals, You Left Me in the Dark (Evidence). No more a sideman, making someone else's fame and fortune, at 69, Jody Williams is in top form and in control of his career. --Mary Armstrong

Fri.-Sat., June 11-12, 9 p.m., $10, Warmdaddy's, 4-6 S. Front St., 215-627-8400.