Lee williams singer biography sample
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By Noah Schaffer
A household name in Black America, Lee Williams had little need for the kind of crossover project that can earn a gospel act attention from the secular music media.
The late Lee Williams — more of a singer than a shouter.
Gospel singer Lee Williams’s death this week at 75 was hardly noticed in the mainstream press. But the Black gospel community — radio DJs, fellow artists, and everyday fans — rushed to pay their deep respects to a singer who, along with his group the Spiritual QC’s, almost single-handedly revived the fortunes of the traditional gospel quartet in the ’90s.
At their height, the QC’s were the dominant live attraction in the quartet field, often found near the top of the Billboard gospel charts. The group racked up Stellar Awards, gospel’s equivalent of the Grammys. But Williams’s seemingly overnight success was three decades in the making.
Sharing a hometown of Tupelo, MS, with Elvis, the group, organized by Williams
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By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever
Melvin Williams and Doc McKenzie & the Hi-Lites were among hundreds who filled Durham’s King’s Park International Church Friday evening to honor Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC’s (pictured left).
The four-hour musical was billed as “The Living Legends Concert: An Intimate Evening with The Legends Honoring Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC’s” and is said to be one of Lee’s final appearances with the QC’s in North Carolina. The longtime frontman of the Tupelo-based group founded by his uncle in the 1960s plans to retire from traveling and performing this year. In July, Daily Journal reported that the multi award-winning singer and songwriter is battling Alzheimer’s Disease. Lee spoke with GMF in 2011 regarding fans’ concerns about his health and rumors of retirement. At the time, he told GMF founder Libra Boyd, “That’s not up to me” and that he’
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Big Joe Williams
American guitarist, recording artist, singer and songwriter
Musical artist
Joseph Lee Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982)[2] was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter,[1] notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over five decades, he recorded the songs "Baby, Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake", and "Peach Orchard Mama", among many others, for various record labels.[3] He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.[4]
The blues historian Barry Lee Pearson (Sounds Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story, Virginia Piedmont Blues) described Williams's performance:
- When inom saw him playing at slang för mikrofon Bloomfield's "blues night" at the Fickle Pickle, Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe hi