Blind Willie McTell
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Biography
Although Blind Willie McTell never had a major hit, he was a prolific performer throughout his career and left a legacy of fine blues playing appreciated by blues aficionados throughout the world. He was born in Georgia at the turn of the 20th century and was blind in one eye from birth losing the sight in his other eye by late childhood. After his mother died he left home and became an itinerant musician beginning his recording career in 1927.
He married his wife Kate in 1934 and in the early years of their marriage she would accompany him on stage and on several recordings. McTell's style of guitar playing, played almost exclusively on twelve-string, bridged the gap between traditional, unsophisticated blues and the more melodious East Coast influenced style of playing sometimes referred to as Piedmont blues which found favour with wider audiences.
McTell battled with diabetes and alcoholism later in life and eventually became a preacher at Mt Zion Baptist Church in Atlanta. He died of a stroke in 1959 and is buried near Thomson, Georgia close to where he was born.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Blues Around Midnight
- Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie McTell
- Southern Can Is Mine
- Kill It Kid
- Homesick & Lonesome Blues by Blind Willie McTell
- Motherless Children Have A Hard Time
- On The Cooling Board
- Pearly Gates
- Searching the Desert for the Blues
- Broke Down Engine Blues
- Pearline by Blind Willie McTell
- How About You
- Experience Blues
- Georgia Rag
- God Don't Like It
- Good Little Thing
- Goodbye Blues
- Hide Me In Thy Bosom
- I Got Religion, I'm So Glad
- I Got To Cross The River Jordan
- A Married Man's Fool
- It's a Good Little Thing
- It's My Desire
- Scary Day Blues
