Title
Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife Project
Subject
African Americans
Blues (Music)
Music -- Performance
Gospel music
Rural blues
Description
Two reel-to-reel audio tapes. See also a second interview and music performance by Williams and Ella Mae Wilson on reels T83-65 through T83-69, in S 1576, also recorded by Devane and Bulger. A third interview can be found on C77-33 and C77-34, in S 1576, box 1. This fieldwork was done in conjunction with the North Florida Folklife Project.
Two reel-to-reel audio tapes. This recording documents fieldwork conducted by DeVane and B. McCallum in conjunction with the North Florida Folklife Project. S. McCallum serves as recordist. R. Williams (guitar, vocals) informally performs folk blues and gospel songs with his daughter, Wilson (vocals) and his wife, L. Williams (vocals). One song leads directly into another. Williams mixes verses and lyrics from one tune into another, loosely assembling old rural blues song structures. "Squeeze Me" serves as a refrain on many songs. Wilson occasionally feeds lyrics to her father. "Don't You Never Let One Woman Grieve Your Mind," "Tain't but the One Thing That Grieves My Mind," and "Farewell, Farewell" appear to be personalized, semi-improvised lyrical variations of "Careless Love." "Old Forty" refers to Engine 40, a passenger train on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that ran through Polk to Alachua county.
The first version of "John Henry" is spliced at 3:15 due to the tape being stopped midway through. The unspliced first half is featured as the last track. Side 2 of T78-329 is a duplicate of Side 1 of T78-328. As such, the repeated tracks are not featured in the track selections.
Tracks 4, 9, 17, 21, 22, 23 and 31 are featured on Drop on Down in Florida, a 1981 compilation of African American traditional music collected by the Florida Folklife Program.
Creator
Williams, Richard, 1887-1981
Williams, Lillie Bell Welch, 1902-2000
Wilson, Ella Mae, 1921-2002
Source
State Archives of Florida, Series S1576
Contributor
Florida Folklife Program
McCallum, Brenda, 1948-1992
DeVane, Dwight, 1946-
McCallum, Stephen
Coverage
Late 20th-Century Florida (1968-2000)
Title of Work
01) Squeeze Me
02) Don't You Never Let One Woman Grieve Your Mind
03) Polk County Blues
04) Baby, Please Don't Go
05) I'm Leaving Here, Baby
06) Squeeze Me
07) John Henry
08) Sitting on Top of the World
09) Tain't but the One Thing That Grieves My Mind
10) Sitting on Top of the World
11) Trouble in Mind/Squeeze Me
12) I'm Grieving All Night Long
13) Old Forty
14) Farewell, Farewell
15) Baby, Please Come Home
16) Travel the Whole World Around
17) Old Forty/Take Me, Baby
18) Take Me, Baby/I'm Too Good a Man for You
19) I'm Grieving All Night Long
20) You've Got to Move
21) In the Morning (When the Dark Clouds Roll Away)
22) You've Got to Stand Your Trial in Judgment
23) Do Lord, Remember Me
24) Set Song
25) Careless Love/Squeeze Me
26) Uncle Sam Is a Dangerous Man
27) Polk County Blues/Trouble in Mind
28) John Henry
29) I'm Working on a Building
30) Glory, Glory (Lay My Burden Down)
31) When the Saints Go Marching In
32) We'll Understand It Better By and By
33) I'll Fly Away
34) Trouble Trouble
35) John Henry
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