TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | SEPT 2020 15
By Alaina Loughridge
Willie Jackson & The
Tybee Blues Band
Quarantine giving you the bad blues? Well, I have a solution for you with some
great blues! If you haven’t met the man or heard his music, now is time and past
time! Willie Jackson is what you need in your life. He looks and sounds like
everything you want in a smoky, jazzy, bluesy bar with a broken heart on your
mind without the crying part. A soulful explanation of lovin’ and cheatin’ is the
best way to describe his latest CD effort titled Willie Jackson Blues with the Tybee
Island Blues Band accompanying. He’s so good that the Independent Music
Channel (IMC) at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles awarded Mr. Jackson with
two awards: Best Blues Song and Best Blues Songwriter! WOW! This in Tybee’s
own little backyard!
Born in Millen, Georgia and raised in Savannah, Willie is the youngest and only
boy of five sisters! Big family and with Dad being a Reverend at the local Baptist
Church, everyone was involved. Especially Willie. He did everything from singing
in the choir, to drums and guitar. Graduating from Groves High, Willie stepped
away from the singing and went to work. Getting a job at a local chemical plant,
he worked there for 16 years, when one day a song came on the radio and
Willie claimed he could sing better than that. A co-worker challenged him and
that started off a slew of writing songs and poems. A kick start, if you will, to get
him headed back in the direction that he was supposed to be headed. Ironically
enough, his first song was I Want my Rib Back and his second was Sleeping
on the Job .
A working family man with seven children, Willie had to keep shucking and jiving
after the chemical plant shut down. He got a job working as a conductor for the
railroad. All the while writing the blues with inspirations from his gospel roots,
as well as country. During this time, he happened to be in Bay Street Blues and
met Ben Kieser. That friendship grew to a point where Willie started singing with
Ben and getting his groove back in front of a live audience again. He also was a
frequent visitor to the Savannah Blues Club and sang with Eric Culberson.
In 2014, Willie moved to Tybee and two years later was singing at the Sand Bar
on Sunday Blues Night. He eventually moved on to Nickie’s Bar & Grill and as
he sang, he collected the band he had always wanted in his mind: Jon Willis
on bass guitar, Dillon Young on lead guitar, Paxton Eugene on drums and Ace
Andersson on harmonica. A couple of members have come and gone, but were
instrumental for Willie and the entire band progressing forward: Holland Zellers,
Henny, Michael Ingram, and Jim Simmons. Willie continues to play occasionally
with such well known local favorites as Chip Zulliger, Michael Moody and Charlie
Sherrill.
With Willie and the band becoming more and more well known locally, Willie was
inspired to go out and get new gigs and build a demo CD. He went to several
blues festivals and at one of them, Frank Roszak, a publicist, kind of discovered
him and propelled Willie on to international attention with several more music
festivals to follow.
In 2018, Willie built a new album entitled All in the Blues and this album boasts
two nominations: The first for I’m Your Landlord, in 2019 and the second for
Come here Junior in 2020. (A shout out to Eric Windbush who produced the
album via Dadds Production.) This album will be released internationally in
2021, but you can certainly hear the blues right now through the usual avenues
of Spotify, Apple, etc. If you need instant Willie satisfaction, you can find him
currently playing at Doc’s Bar on Tybee, the Dew Drop Inn and Blueberry Hill in
Savannah. Check out his Facebook page or williejacksonblues.com for all of his
upcoming
concert dates.
I asked Willie what the future holds. He replied that he just wants to write fun
songs, not take himself too seriously and have people enjoy his music. I’m in!
Willie also wants to continue to help Tybee and has done many a concert here for
charitable events, including that bitch Irma when she came through. Willie and
the Band were right there doing benefit concerts and helping out where needed.
Willie Jackson and the Tybee Blues Band are Tybee. Bluesy and having a good
time! Smokey and funky! A definite must-be-a-groupie kind of band and follow
them wherever they go. Y’all get out there and support them and listen to some
great music while supporting our community!
GO LOCAL
/williejacksonblues.com