Andre Williams and the Countdowns opening for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
8 p.m. Jan. 24 at 328 Performance Hall
For info, call 259-3288
One of R&B’s most entertaining, most idiosyncratic acts comes to Nashville this week when Andre Williams appears with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Most local clubgoers might be excited about seeing Spencer’s trio lay down some scorchingly funky grooves, but we’re way more pumped about seeing Williams, a legendary singer whose booming baritone and mastery of innuendo-laden narratives have earned him a special place in black pop history. It’s a good bet that if he’s ever played Nashville before, it hasn’t been for a long, long time—and certainly not for the throng of alternarockers who’ll crowd into 328 Performance Hall Sunday night.
Though Williams, nicknamed “Mr. Rhythm,” has never enjoyed the kind of across-the-board appeal of such ’50s colleagues as Clyde McPhatter, he carved his own niche with such memorable songs as “Greasy Chicken” and “Jail Bait,” sly gems that combined saucy, whimsical observations, declarative vocals, and clever quips.
Like Mississippi bluesman R.L. Burnside, who has also received exposure to a whole new audience thanks to the Blues Explosion, Williams hasn’t mellowed over the years. If anything, the opposite is true. His biggest hit might have come in 1957 with the classic side “Bacon Fat,” but if his recent recordings are any indication, his music has only gotten funkier and bawdier. The 1996 LP Greasy on Norton proves he can still deliver some swanky R&B, including a red-hot remake of his own “Jail Bait,” along with sizzling covers of “Riot In Cell Block #9” and the Dominoes’ “The Bells.” The backing arrangements blend throbbing saxes, piercing blues harp from Studebaker John, and fine guitar work courtesy of the Pretty Things’ Dick Taylor.
There’s no doubt, though, that Williams has earned a few ’90s fans by mining his reputation for being downright dirty, as exemplified in the tunes “Lemon Squeezing Daddy” and “Down Home Girl,” both highlights from Greasy. His most recent LP, Silky, which came out last year on In the Red and features backing by Mick Collins of Detroit group the Gories, offers even more raunch in the form of “Bonin’ ” and “Pussy Stank”—not to mention the record’s titillating sleeve, which depicts a swarthy hand grabbing a bare, lily-white ass.
Ironically, Williams, an Alabama native, got his start as a gospel performer in Chicago before joining the Navy. (No doubt, all that time in the company of sailors took the choirboy right out of him.) After his discharge, he returned to Chicago’s south side, where he joined several doo-wop ensembles, among them the Five Dollars. His ability to hit thudding low notes and maneuver in the bottom end, plus his expressiveness and ease as a storyteller, led to a contract as a lead singer and composer for Fortune Records.
For all his bawdiness, Williams was just as distinctive for his loose, conversational delivery, which drew as much on anecdotes and folk tales as it did on jumping, swing-drenched R&B. Take his hit “Bacon Fat,” for instance: The song might be a novelty tune about a new dance step, but its appeal lies in Williams’ lackadaisical versifying as a loping beat and a drawling tenor sax help set the laid-back tempo.
Williams turned out a handful of forgotten classics at Fortune, among them “Don’t Touch” and “Pass the Biscuits Please,” but by 1960 he’d moved on to gigs as a writer and producer. He spent time both in Detroit, where he worked at Motown (before getting canned by Berry Gordy), and in Chicago, where he helped turn out the Five Du-Tones’ “Shake a Tail Feather,” along with hit discs for Alvin Cash and others.
Now, decades later, he has resurfaced to receive his due from a whole new generation of R&B and rock ’n’ roll fanatics. You might not find him included on any so-called definitive soul or R&B anthologies, but there’s no doubt he’s an American original, a legend in his own time. Which is why local audiences shouldn’t miss the chance to see him in action onstage—where, backed by L.A. group The Countdowns, he’ll no doubt crank up his off-color antics and pumping R&B. There’s even a chance he might steal the show from Jon Spencer.
Comments (0)