Lil' Ed Williams

Artist Spotlight
Lil' Ed Williams By “Downtown" Bob Stannard, correspondent to BarrelhouseBlues.com bob@bobstannard.com © 2010 BarrelhouseBlues.com - All Rights Reserved Photograph by Bob Stannard
Lil' Ed Williams		If you can go to a Li’l Ed & the Blues Imperials performance and NOT smile, then you need more help than I can give you. Li’l Ed Williams, nephew of the legendary JB Hutto, is like a fine wine; getting better with each passing day. He’s gregarious, entertaining and smiles and laughs more than anyone I have ever known.

It is impossible to be around this man and not smile or break out laughing. He is one jolly Bluesman, that’s for sure.

Add this to his electrifying personality and crushing slide guitar and you have a formula for an evening of dancing til you drop; just like the old Disco days. This was a real fun interview to do as I think you’ll be able to see right off. Enjoy. I sure did.

DTB: OK, so I’m here with Li’l Ed Williams….

LE: You mind if I eat while we do this?

DTB: No, of course not. Go ahead.

LE: What’s your name? <Laughing>

DTB: My name….my name is Bo….who gives a shit about my name (Li’l Ed’s laughing up a storm). Who’s interviewin’ who here?

LE: OK, Bob so where you from?

DTB: I’m from Vermont; the whitest state in the union and the first state to vote for Obama. You know the place?

LE: Yeah, I just rode all the way through Vermont.

DTB: You must’ve been running away from somewhere.

LE: <Laughing>

DTB: Usually the only reason people are in Vermont is to go through it to get to somewhere else…

LE: That’s right. <laughing> That’s just what I was doing.

DTB: You were probably on your way to Maine…

LE: That’s right! That’s Right! <laughing harder>

DTB: OK, so the first time I saw you was 25 years ago in Albany, New York. I totaled my car on the way home. You’re a hard guy for me to forget.

LE: Well, I hope you’re not blaming your badass driving on me…

DTB: No, I drive much more carefully now as I’m drivin’ a much finer car.

LE: I hope you was listening to my music at least when you flew off the road. <laughing>

DTB: Hey, you know what a Vermonter says just before he’s about to fly off a slippery road while going about 60 mph?

LE: Wassat?

DTB: Hold my beer – watch this!

LE: <laughing big time>

DTB: I said to my wife who was sitting right next to me, right after we hit the hedge row and crashed the car, ‘Yeah, bummer, but wasn’t Li’l Ed great??” <laughing>

LE: Nice of you to say so. <laughing>

DTB: So, what’s changed in your life over the past 25 years?

LE: Got a little older; a little wiser. Workin’ a lot more. Won a couple of awards.

DTB: Tell me what you won.

LE: Won best band of the year…what year was that, Michael (standing in the corner) 2007? Then we won it again last year (2008).

DTB: You been doing this a long time, right?

LE: Yeah, I’ve been doing this about 32 years now.

DTB: I just saw your show and I think everybody was knocked out by it. I just did an interview with John Hall, he’s the promoter of this event (The North River Blues Festival) and he said “I know Charlie Musselwhite is the headliner of this show and he’s really, really good, but I wanted to have Li’l Ed here to warm up the crowd and jazz things up for Charlie.”

LE: OK.

DTB: Can you imagine thinking that someone out there would consider having you to jazz things up? <grinning>

LE: <laughing>

DTB: You coming out all dressed in red; red shirt, pants, sneaker wearing a red fez walking out on stage smiling for about an hour and killin’ about a thousand of people. Did he have the right man, or what?

LE: Well, the jazzin’ part, I don’t think so. <laughing>

DTB: You put on one hell of a show and you do this most every night. Where do you get the energy from?

LE: I get it all from the good Lord up above. I ain’t makin’ this stuff up. Somebody’s gotta be doing it; be givin’ it to me.

DTB: We know your history. JB Hutto was your uncle and he taught you how to do this?

LE: Uh huh.

DTB: He taught George Thorogood, too, right?

LE: Yeah.

DTB: Too bad George didn’t pay as close attention as you did, eh?

LE: <laughing> Yeah, that was a real shame. George does his own thing. He’s a rock n roller. I’m a Bluesman.

DTB: Hey, George is pretty good, though.

LE: I love George. I’ve toured with George…..twice. One of the times they were serving steak. It was one of the first shows I ever did where they served steak.

DTB: <laughing> You must’ve thought you were at the wrong gig. What the hell is up with the steak.

LE: Yeah, I did. I think one of the shows was around Thanksgiving and they come out with all this food. That’s when I said I cannot accept these cold cuts no more. <laughing> I gotta have REAL food now.

DTB: OK, on a more serious note, I learned about you 25 years ago, because I had heard you on the radio. I learned about your uncle by hearing HIM on the radio. I heard about Muddy Waters by hearing HIM on the radio. It seems as though that’s what happened over the past quarter century is that the radio stations have been taken over by Clear Channel, and others, and Blues players just don’t get the airplay that they used to. Buddy Guy told me recently, he said to say hello by the way…..

LE: Oh, good.

DTB: No he didn’t. I was just makin’ that up. But if I see him again I’ll tell him you said hello, how’s that?

LE: <laughing again> That’s fine.

DTB: Buddy said that even at this stage of the game for him that he’s fighting for gigs and for airplay.

LE: Well, that’s true. All the Blues musicians are today. It’s really hard to get Blues music on the radio and I don’t know why. People love it. This is the highlight time of my career. I’m doing a lot of festivals and I’m seeing a lot of people out there at these shows. I mean, I’m talking about thousands and thousands of people that I’m seeing at these shows. It’s a good question, Bob. Why aren’t we on the radio more? It’s crazy. We’re as good as any top-40 band out there today.

DTB: I’d say you’re a lot better….

LE: Thanks. The youngsters seem to like rock n' roll and the adults all seem to still like the Blues. They go hand in hand, though.

DTB: Ya know I sit back and watch American Idol, not that I watch it much, and I see these people compete against each other for about three months; a winner is chosen and they disappear in about two weeks.

LE: That’s right. And you know these type of songs, they all sound the same. Everybody…<breaks into song> AAAHHHHHHhhhhhhh wants to be an opera singer.

DTB: Damn, that was pretty good. You might want to consider going on American Idol….

LE: Yeah. I do listen to this stuff every once in a while and it does seem like every song sounds the same. It’s the same thing. I don’t know how they can tell one is better from another. They all the same. OK, one pitch might be a little higher. <laughing>

DTB: I guess the question is where are these winners going to be in 30 years?

LE: Oh, they ain’t gonna last that long. You know you go back to the 70’s; the 60’s; back when Disco came out. People would be dancing ‘til they fall down. I used to be a DJ. My auntie was working at a bar and her old man was a DJ. That’s how I got hooked into doing it. We’d put these 35 minute long records on, man, and those people would be out there dancing til they fall down. Man, that was so exciting to see. And we had to talk. DJ’s today don’t talk much. We did a lot of talkin’, laughin’ and jokin’, and boy, those people would have a ball.

DTB: You were drivin’ ‘em. I just saw your show out there and there was not one person; not one person who was not having a good time. Your music drives people. I guess a concern that I have is that the “American Idol” music of today doesn’t really drive people. They ain’t dancin’ til they drop.

LE: It works both ways. When I see people out there having a good time it drives me to push harder and harder.

DTB: It’s a two-way street. Your attitude on stage; I mean, you really are one of the most cheerful people I have ever seen on stage. Off stage, too, for that matter <laughing>. Your smile; your attitude is infectious. If I interviewed anybody out there and asked them what they liked about your show, they might not be able to put their finger on it. But if I said how ‘bout the fact that he’s smiling the whole time? I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me and you, young lady <speaking to Ed’s wife, Pam> but does it appear as though he’s really having fun or is it just me? It’s not an act, right? <laughin>

Pam: No, it’s not an act. If you’re wondering if he’s just like that on stage, forget it. He’s like that all the time. He smiles a lot.

DTB: Well, if that’s an act you should get more than the Band of the Year award. You should get an Academy Award for best actor….or maybe best smiler. <laughing>

LE: You see, one thing JB put on me. He said there’s two things you gotta know if you’re going to be in this business. The first thing is that you ain’t gonna get rich.

DTB: You mean rich with money, right?

LE: <Looking puzzled> Yeah.

DTB: You got one of the richest lives of anyone on the planet. You may not got any money in your pocket but you got a rich life. At the end of the game what is that really matters? Money in your pocket or friends all over the world and people who love it.

LE: You tell it. You tell it. That’s it. JB also taught me to always respect your fans. They’re the ones that are feedin’ you. Be nice to your fans. Smile. He said you should smile all the time, because when you’re smiling that means you don’t have time to look mad.

DTB: Man, that is such good advice and on so many levels; not just music and stage presence.

LE: Yeah it is and I took that with me my whole life. It wasn’t just about the music. The smile keeps all the bad stuff away. There are sometimes that I may be feeling down, but you won’t know it.

DTB: That’s what you want your fans to take away….

LE: That’s right. I want them to know that I am happy.

DTB: And you been through some rough times, right?

LE: OH YEAH <laughing> Sho have. Been there; done that. You know, we all have to be taught a lesson in life. Sometimes we have to do bad things so that we know about the good things we must do. We have to know right from wrong and come back to the good things that we’re supposed to do. It’s harder sometimes more than others.

It reminds me of that movie, Forrest Gump. You know what I took away from that movie? Life is just a box of chocolates. You never know what you might get. <laughin> You gotta look at that; the bad as well as the good.

DTB: Yeah, and you have to learn to deal with it in a good way. Everybody gets hit with tragedy as well as good times. You have to be able to deal with both.

LE: You never know what you might get but if you play it right you know it’s always gonna be sweet. You never get a lemon in a box of chocolates.

DTB: And I would simply add that there’s nothing sweeter than a Li’l Ed and the Blues Imperials performance.

LE: You’re mighty kind. Thanks very much.

Bob Stannard is an endorsed player of SEYDEL Harmonicas:
http://www.seydelusa.com
He also plays other harmonicas custom fitted by Steve Malerbi.
He uses customs mics made by Dennis Oellig:
http://www.mrmicrophone.com
Bob is a "Juried Artist" with the Vermont Arts Council
website: http://www.bobstannard.com
Email: bob@bobstannard.com