Willie Farmer - I Am The Lightning

Willie Farmer has had his own shop in Duck Hill, MS for over forty years, and he’s hopeful that he can focus on blues full-time with the release of ‘The Man From The Hill.’

Farmer’s father Alex played harmonica (sometimes with Leo “Bud” Welch) while his uncle Walter Farmer developed a juke joint following as one of the best guitarists in the region before he migrated to Chicago. In 1964, he recorded an album but was cut down over a woman before it could be released.

More details from Living Blues (they ran a full feature in the December/January issue (link to PDF).

As a kid, Farmer also heard blues on the radio via Nashville’s WLAC, with Lightnin’ Hopkins being his favorite.

I like the old stuff, that’s the real blues. The blues they’re singing today, that ain’t blues to me, it just doesn’t have the feel.

‘The Man From the Hill’ was produced by Bruce Watson at Delta-Sonic Sound with help from Jimbo Mathus (Valerie June, Elvis Costello), Will Sexton (Amy LaVere), Mark Edgar Stuart (Alvin Youngblood Hart), and Al Gamble (St. Paul & The Broken Bones).

Willie Farmer is living proof that Mississippi continues to produce deep blues. The 60+ year old guitarist is neither a soul modernist nor revivalist, but simply a small-town auto mechanic who’s never shaken his love for old school legends like Muddy, Wolf and Lightnin’.

I’m trying to get out of that shop, I’m tried of messing with those cars. It’s been a long time.