Blind Connie Williams

The only known photo of Blind Connie Williams.

Blind Connie Williams (born c. 1915) was an American blues guitarist who was a street performer since the early 1930s. Williams was something of a journeyman throughout his busking career, although he did stay in Philadelphia for the majority of his life. Much of his repertoire consisted of sanctified gospel songs and pre-war country blues standards. In 1961, Williams had a recording session with record producer Pete Welding, the results of which were later released on a compilation album.

Little is known about Williams' personal life; however, according to Welding's notes on him, Williams was born in Florida sometime in 1915 to migrant workers. As a teenager, Williams attended the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, where he developed a sophisticated understanding of harmony and a proficency as a guitarist to begin his career as a street performer in the 1930s.^[1][2] In 1935, Williams settled in Philadelphia, but also frequently made pilgrimages to Harlem, where he performed alongside Reverend Gary Davis.^[3] Although he possessed the capability to perform blues standards, folk songs, and some pop tunes, Williams confided to Welding in 1961 that he preferred playing spirituals because he enjoyed them and "the police rarely would bother him if he confined himself to this sort of material".^[4] Piedmont blues guitarist Frank Hovington, another musician who occasionally teamed up with Williams in Philadelphia in the 1940s, recalls Williams was "more at home" performing spirituals as he sang in a gospel quartet at an African Methodist Episcopal church in Frederica, Maryland.^[5]

In 1961, while Williams was residing in a predominantly black neighborhood on Lombard Street, Welding spectated his performance of sanctified numbers to accordion accompaniment. After striking a friendship with the producer, Williams explained that he transitioned to the accordion for it's audibility, while also limiting his physical activity, both important characteristics for the aging musician.^[2][6] For the recording sessions he agreed to participate with Welding at WHUY radio on May 5, 1961, Williams reacquainted himself with the guitar, which Welding purchased for him. Although there is influence from Reverend Davis evident throughout the 23 numbers recorded, Williams was very much cemented in his own style which was marked by bass string slapping and bottlenecking techniques.^[2]

None of the recordings were released at the time; however, 16 of the songs were compiled on the album Blind Connie Williams - Traditional Blues, Spirituals and Folksongs in 1974 on Welding's Testament Records. Williams' best-known song, a rendition of Thomas A. Dorsey's "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" was performed in a traditional eight-bar blues format, which was his preferred style. Not much is known about Williams following his sessions with Welding, although he was still living in Philadelphia by 1974. In 1995, his album, re-titled Philadelphia Street Singer, was distributed with the seven numbers from the 1961 sessions previously left off the 1974 version.^[1][2]

Discography

• Blind Connie Williams - Traditional Blues, Spirituals and Folksongs - Testament Records (T-2225), 1974

• Philadelphia Street Singer - Testament Records (TCD-5024), 1995 reissue^[7]

References

External links

Blind Connie Williams discography