big Daddy Wilson
Big Daddy Wilson is relatively new on the blues scene, but it sounds like he’s been singing the Blues “all his life”, “Weil’s von ganzem Herzen rüberkommt” (Osterholzer Kreisblatt ) because it comes from the heart. I want people to feel me says Wilson, I want to take them by the hand and take them back home with me, down the dirt roads of North Carolina. Big Daddy Wilson was born and raised in a small farming town called Edenton N.C. straight form the heart of the south. Wilson grew up listening to the Gospel and Country music played by the local Radio Station. Influenced by his first Cousin, Jimmy Blount who was a Drummer and Bass player, drums and bass became Wilson’s first love. Although extremely shy, music became a way for Wilson to express himself! As a teenager I was strongly influenced by the Funk and Soul of the seventies. Wilson quit school and left home at the age of 16. He later joined the US ARMY.
I was around 30 years old, when I saw my first Blues concert. That night I’ll never forget… I had finally found what I was looking for. I felt like a little boy, my stomach was twisting, my heart beating like a drum. I wanted to sing so bad, even though I had never sung in a band before. I felt like, “this is it”, this is me, this is my music. To make a long story short, somehow I ended up on stage that night, singing the blues in a small club called “Wüstenstätte”. Coming from a religious background, singing gospel songs was normal for us, but Blues was something else, we never listen to Blues. I started working with many different bands. I wanted to learn as much as I could about this new thing that I found. I wanted to see how it fit in with the Soul, Funk and Gospel that I grew up with. I saw right away that Blues was the Root, the foundation of the Soul and Funk that I grew up listening to. It is so close to Gospel like a brother, like a first cousin. So after singing in a few blues and soul bands for some years, I started a project called “Back to the Roots”, Acoustic Blues. Just me and a guitar player Wolfgang “Doc Fozz” Feld. He was the bass player in one of the bands I had (Blues Caravan).
We decided to write some songs, start a duo you know, just keep it simple.It worked out pretty good, we had a lot of fun. So we recorded our first CD together “My Day Will Come” 2004. I learned a lot more about this music called the Blues, after recording that CD. That same year I recorded my second CD in Budapest, Hungary “Get On Your Knees And Pray”. I’ve been writing songs long before I started singing the Blues, but the funny thing is, all of the early songs that I wrote, had a strong Blues flavour. It seems like I had the Blues long before I knew what the Blues was. In just a short time!
Wilson has been invited to sing all across Europe, in small clubs, in big festivals, on radio shows, TV shows and even at the Cinema… It was a great honour for me, when I was asked to sing for the grand opening of Wim Wenders Movie “The Soul of a Man” in Hamburg, Germany 2004. News papers and magazines write about his unique, strong but warm vocal style, how Wilson reaches out and touches the Audience with every word he sing. You can learn a lot form different singers, but the most important thing is what you feel. Blues is a feeling!!!
Wilson also worked with top Blues musicians like, Blues Legend
“Lazy Lester”, Folk, Root and Bluesman Eric Bibb, Texas Bluesman Guy Forsyth, the most successful german bluesband “Blues Company”, the best Germans traditional Bluesman “Abi Wallenstein”, the Tommy Schneller Band, The Gregor Hilden Band, the great piano player Christian Rannenberg, the best Hungarian acoustic Bluesband “Dr. Valtr and the Lawbreakers”, Soul and Bluesman “ Greg Pappa G.Copeland. To call Wilson a Bluesman is not enough, because of his outstanding vocal style, Wilson sounds unlike any other Bluesman or Singer. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally found my way back home!
