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Called Doogie round town, he was a real quick witted, bright, and full of confidence kid who got himself
involved in the moonshine business. “I started for a man in South Georgia” said Willie “makin’ booze.”
But then things suddenly changed, “my mother died an’ left me, after that I got out on my own.”

With nothin’ to tie him down no more Willie picked up his guitar and started out ramblin’, playin’ the
street corners and alleyway joints of big Georgia towns like Augusta and Atlanta. He’d still drift on back
to Statesboro from time to time 'til he got himself married, then he settled in Atlanta, mainly cause his
wife Kate could sing pretty good and the couple could work those city streets together. “Sometimes we
had money, and then sometimes we didn’t” said Kate.

Down on Decatur Willie got to hear that Victor A&R scout Ralph Peer had shipped in some mobile
recording gear, set up a makeshift studio at 51 Forsyth, and was on the lookout for talent, so Willie
went along to audition. With blankets hanging on the walls and crude wooden staging on the floor Blind
Willie waxed four tracks for Peer at fifty dollars a side and walked out into a bright October afternoon
with a pocket full of dough.

Even better, six weeks later Victor released ‘Stole Rider Blues’ and followed that with ‘Writing Paper
Blues’. It didn’t matter too much to Willie that the platters weren’t big hits, he’d made it to wax and on
the back of that Blind Willie and his twelve string Stella was workin’ rent parties, fish fries, barbecues
and jukes all over, sometimes alone and sometimes with his buddies Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss,
gettin’ food, liquor, and maybe pickin’ up a couple of dollars each.

But Atlanta life was still one big hustle for Blind Willie, so whenever he got to hear about some record
scout audition, he’d go along and sign up for just about anyone who offered. He was Blind Sammie for
Columbia, Blind Willie at Vocalion, Georgia Bill at Okeh, and Red Hot Willie Glaze at Bluebird. Ink
Williams signed him to Decca and took him and Curley Weaver all the way to their Chicago studios but
couldn’t find a big seller. Ahmet Ertegun did no better after he’d found Willie workin’ the Atlanta streets
and signed him to Atlantic as Barrel House Sammie, and Regal boss Fred Mendelsohn had no luck with
the eighteen or so tracks Blind Willie and Curley Weaver waxed in an Atlanta radio station studio.

Not that any of that worried Blind Willie. He’d picked up some good dough from those sessions and
was still duckin’ and diving, livin’ a scufflin’ life, not stayin’ too long in one place, playin’ all night long
for a dollar or two and gettin’ back home at the break of day.

And that’s what Blind Willie did till diabetes and a stroke finally put a stop to his wanderings. Family
and friends took him back home to Happy Valley where he stayed till the Lord hung up Doogie’s twelve
string and dusty boots and called him home.

He might’ve been blind, but Willie McTell was a real travellin’ bluesman. “He was a great player, great
singer” reckoned Ahmet Ertegun, but Blind Willie always seemed to be searchin’ for somethin’ he never
could find. He turned to religion and could really play them church songs but even that didn’t stop
footloose Blind Willie McTell from driftin’ the highways cause just like he’d told his wife one time “baby,
I was born to ramble, I’m gonna ramble till I die.”

Roger Bromley

The Nitecrawlers

Extracted with permission from Henry's Bluesletter #170

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