Willie King was an American blues guitarist and singer, known for shunning fame and playing at a local bar in Mississippi. King was born in Prairie Point, a community in Noxubee County, Mississippi near the Alabama border. Prior to recording, he worked as a sharecropper, moonshine maker and travelling salesman; just a few of his many occupations. Later he became active with the civil rights movement, which inspired him to write socially conscious blues songs.
In 1983, he founded the Rural Members Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the traditional rural skills King had grown up with, which he called ‘survival skills,’ and helping improve his local community. In 1997, the Rural Members Association started the annual Freedom Creek blues festival, which has since received international recognition. He began recording in 1999 and his 2000 recordings Freedom Creek and I Am The Blues, were the first of several acclaimed albums.
He met and shared a stage with the renowned folk musician and social justice activist Pete Seeger. Encouraged by his friend and fellow civil rights activist lawyer David Gespass, King began writing original songs that reflected the struggles of the era, which he called “struggling blues.” These songs told stories that reflected King’s direct experience and spoke to the lives of many people in the region. King performed at national and international festivals but mostly played near his home, most notably as a regular at Bettie’s Juke Joint in Mississippi.
Dutch film-makers Saskia Rietmeijer and Bart Drolenga (Visible World Films) wanted to produce a documentary about African American arts and culture in the Deep South. But they met Willie King and instead decided to devote their efforts to creating a documentary about King’s life and times, titled Down in the Woods. King was also featured in Martin Scorsese’s 2003 documentary series The Blues and Shout Factory’s Blues Story the same year.
King was married for a brief time and had at least one daughter, but accounts regarding other children are ambiguous. In March 2009, King died unexpectedly of a heart attack on the way from his home in Old Memphis to the nearby hospital in Macon, Mississippi, for treatment for an illness. He is buried at Spring Hill Baptist Church in Macon, Mississippi, just a few miles from his home.
