Robert Pete Williams
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| R.P. Williams |
Oster recorded the bluesman in late 1959 there at Angola State Penitentiary. In the background on the resulting CD, I'm Blue as a Man Can Be, you can hear an accompaniment of birdsongs, and the lonesome howl of a train whistle carried to the microphone by a Southern breeze. It's somewhat eerie considering how Williams' described his inspiration when he was 28 to change his music style: "The sound of the atmosphere; the weather changed my style. But I could hear, since being an air-music man. The air came in different, with a different sound of music. Well, the atmosphere, when the wind is blowing, carries music along."
Oster also helped Williams win a parole from prison, which ultimately led to Williams' music career. However, his style was so idiosyncratic that blues crowds and other black bluesmen didn't fully accept him. That's a real shame, because the man was a authentic genius. Like many visionary artists, he sacrificed much popularity to follow his talent.
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| Williams in Canada |
On a 12-string guitar in particular, Williams achieves a distinctive wall of sound; a complex emotional effect evoked by his peculiar harmonic ideas, unpredictable rhythm and plaintive voice. The sound comes at you from several directions, which is unusual considering the intimate persona -- the small voice -- of one man and one acoustic guitar. Whatever emotional response he got from his listeners, it wasn't what the Saturday night crowds at bars and music festivals were looking for; Williams barely earned enough money to support himself.
That's not to say that all of Williams' recordings were completely outside the mainstream; much of the CD Free Again, for example, is very much a part of popular conventions, although delivered to the listener with an unusual mastery. The fact that his performance seems to vary from raw to sublime only lends to the sense of an artist in command of his medium.
It's a crime that blues books and discographies still neglect Robert Pete Williams. Even today, blues fans and the blues establishment have not seen fit to give this man the respect he deserves. Blues has been caught between young white audiences that expect something sexy and braggadocious, and young black audiences that seem almost embarrassed by a music form popular with their grandparents. At least in his own mind, Williams saw his music not as a response to public whim, but whatever God sent him on the wind. He died in 1980 at age 66.
I recommend: Vol. 1 - I'm Blue As A Man Can Be, Vol. 2 - When A Man Takes The Blues, and Free Again.