Page 33 - BiTS_03_MARCH_2021_Neat

Juke Boy, The Lone Cat, Stovepipe and The Good Doctor

By
Jim Simpson
(Used with permission)

Considering the importance of the one man band in the Blues lexicon, it is remarkable how few of
them ever achieved significant prominence.

The first of this rare and precious breed that I encountered, was possibly the most well-known, The
Lone Cat from Jonesboro, Georgia, Jesse Fuller, composer of the timeless “San Francisco Bay Blues”
who I featured in The Refectory of The College of Advanced Technology – now known as Aston
University – back in the early 60s.

Then in 1973 I found and brought over William Paden
Hensley born in Bullock County, Alabama, but at that
time Detroit-based. He was known professionally as

Washboard Willie and billed himself modestly as The
Fantabulous Washboard Willie and his Super Suds of
Rhythm.

Willie featured on Big Bear's first American Blues

Legends tour along with Lightnin' Slim, Whispering
Smith, Homesick James, Snooky Pryor and Boogie
Woogie Red. He came straight from his day job as a
school bus driver and gigs in the bars and speakeasies of
Hastings Street, to single handedly captivating

audiences of 500 or 600 wildly enthusiastic,
predominantly white, European blues fans.

He took to this unfamiliar setting without so much as a
blink, as if he had never done anything else - and then