Description
Label Review.
2017 album. Ruf Records.
Our Overview.
Wilson Blount – aka Big Daddy Wilson– is certainly a bluesman with a point of difference. He may have been a Southern black kid and born in North Carolina, but he's honest enough to admit he didn't even hear the blues until he was in his Thirties and living in Germany where he'd gone to serve time in the military.
Big Daddy recalls in an interview with Elsewhere; “I must have been around 32 or 33 when I first heard the blues. It was late and it was surprising coming from the south and being a black American you would think I would be accustomed to it. But I was from a very small town [Edenton, pop. around 6000] and they only listed to the country music played on the local radio station and the gospel music in church. But there was no blues in that area – even though Carolina is known for the blues. Once I heard it I knew that there was something missing in my life and that this hit the spot like no other music. I like soul and gospel and funk, I like country, but no other music hit me like simple blues/ Once I heard it, I knew I had found what I was looking for and what I needed to do. It wasn't just something to hear, but something to do. It was a healer for me, it was that big.”
Big Daddy does not just focus on the blues because he brings in a mix of gospel and folk into his sound. “I'm free and I like to express that in the music and because I didn't grow up with a big blues background I didn't know the great blues artists, so I could just play what I felt, and I felt all these different styles. I had a soul or funk song and people would say 'Oh that is the blues' so it didn't matter what I sung it was the blues. I try to bring different flavours, especially on the CDs, especially country music because they are great storytellers. And I try to put a little spiritual music in there too and maybe a reggae feeling. I like to keep it mixed up because that's what I'm about.”
Now with 11 albums behind he is set to release his new album ‘Neckbone Stew’; “It’s a mixture of all the spices and good stuff you’ll find in most Southern kitchens,” says the award-winning US bluesman Big Daddy Wilson. “To make a good stew, you need a little bit of everything, and this was the idea I went with for my new CD. A beautiful mélange of blues, spiritual, roots, soul and reggae. I just felt like mixing it up this time.”