Blues On Stage - Lil' Ed with Dave Weld

Lil' Ed with Dave Weld
@ The Blues Saloon, July 26, 1997

Lil' Ed & Dave Weld
July 26, 1997 - The Blues Saloon
Photo © 1997 by Tom Asp - All rights reserved

Lil' Ed Williams and his raucous, rocking slide guitar harkens back to the "house-rockin' days of Hound Dog Taylor. His growing legion of fans, known as "Ed Heads," are out every time he comes to town. Ed opened the show with the Jimmy Rogers classic "Walking By Myself," and followed with an enthusiastically received "Black Magic Woman." Lil' Ed's slide guitar just rings. He plays with such feeling and wild intensity. It's not hard to get up and start jumping along with Ed. This little guy with the huge grin and wicked slide has so much energy on stage and is in constant motion. He is like a "jack-in-the-box", jumping around and shaking his guitar. At one point he jumped off the stage and played on his toes, like Pee Wee Herman. He then played while on his knees, on his back, and then he jumped up on one of the narrow tables and continued his solo as he walked along, ending with another jump down to the dance floor...to the cheering delight of the audience.

Lil' Ed Williams
July 26, 1997 - The Blues Saloon
Photo © 1997 by Tom Asp - All rights reserved

Born in Chicago on April 8, 1955, Lil' Ed Williams is the nephew of the late JB Hutto, one of the outstanding blues slide guitar players who carried on the tradition of Elmore James. Ed started playing with his uncle in the late 1960's. He recalled an amusing story of the first time he was on stage playing with Hutto in South Bend, Indiana. He was 18 and there was a 4 foot drop from the stage to the dance floor. After his uncle had jumped down from the stage he motioned for Ed to follow. Not sure what to do, Ed leaped to the dance floor, ending in a squat and hearing his pants split up the back seam. He said what followed was one of the funniest things people had ever seen. When he heard the pants split he was still in a squat, so in one continuous motion he bounced backwards up onto the stage surprising himself, his uncle and the whole audience. They couldn't believe what they had just seen. It was like a spring had pulled him right back on the stage. They thought it was all part of the act. Well, tonight Ed's pants held out and we still had a great time.

E-mail Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com

Free web pages from GeoCities

Copyright © 1997 by Ray M. Stiles
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.