{"product_id":"the-man-from-the-hill","title":"The Man From The Hill","description":"\u003cdiv\u003eLittle Willie Farmer is living proof that Mississippi continues\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eto produce deep blues. The 62-year-old guitarist is neither a\u003cbr\u003esoul modernist nor revivalist, but simply a small town auto\u003cbr\u003emechanic who’s never shaken his love for old school legends\u003cbr\u003elike Muddy, Wolf and Lightnin’.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eA lifelong resident of tiny Duck Hill, located in the hills east\u003cbr\u003eof the Delta, Farmer grew up on the family farm. He first took\u003cbr\u003eup the acoustic guitar in his early teens, and through picking\u003cbr\u003ecotton soon saved up enough money to buy an electric\u003cbr\u003einstrument.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eHe played for audiences at home and at school events, and\u003cbr\u003elearned about blues and R\u0026amp;amp;B mostly through listening to a\u003cbr\u003epowerful station out of Nashville.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e“John R of WLAC, that’s how I listened to Lightnin’ Hopkins,\u003cbr\u003eHowlin’ Wolf. That’s how I got my first album by Lightnin’ [The\u003cbr\u003eFire Records LP Mojo Hand]. I got the address off the radio and\u003cbr\u003ethey sent it.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e“I learned Lightin’ pretty good, and then I went to B.B. I can\u003cbr\u003eplay all the up-to-date stuff now—B.B., Little Milton—but I like\u003cbr\u003ethe old stuff, that’s the real blues. The blues they’re singing\u003cbr\u003etoday, that ain’t blues to me, it just doesn’t have the feel.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Farmer is from a musical family, he didn’t learn\u003cbr\u003emuch directly from his elders. His maternal grandfather had\u003cbr\u003eplayed the fiddle as a young man, but he rebuffed Willie’s offer\u003cbr\u003eto buy him a new instrument when he discovered the high cost.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eWillie’s father Alex, a harmonica player who helped young\u003cbr\u003eWillie tune his guitar, had played as a young man with his\u003cbr\u003ebrothers including Walter, who was recognized as one of the\u003cbr\u003ebest guitarists to come out of the area.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eIn the early ‘50s Walter played together with Leo “Bud”\u003cbr\u003eWelch, who grew up in the region. Sadly, Walter was killed in\u003cbr\u003eChicago in 1964—“a woman liked Walter, and a man got\u003cbr\u003ejealous and killed him”—and Willie never heard him play.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his early ‘20s Farmer joined a loose knit band that played\u003cbr\u003eat juke joints across the area—in Duck Hill, Grenada,\u003cbr\u003eKilmichael, and down in the Delta in Greenwood and\u003cbr\u003eCharleston. He eventually tired, though, of the rough-and-\u003cbr\u003etumble clubs where “people liked to fight like crazy.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eFor about fifteen years Farmer worked regularly with local\u003cbr\u003esemi-professional gospel groups, including the Rising Sun\u003cbr\u003eSingers, who appeared on TV and over the radio in Greenwood,\u003cbr\u003ethe Angelettes, and, for nine years, the Grenada-based\u003cbr\u003eSilvertone Gospel Singers.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eFarmer eventually decided he wanted to get back into blues\u003cbr\u003eactively. He initially didn’t want to deal with the trouble of\u003cbr\u003ekeeping together a band, and began playing solo gigs.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eIn 2003 he helped found the annual Grassroots Blues\u003cbr\u003eFestival, staged in a meadow outside Duck Hill. Through the\u003cbr\u003eevent and he befriended downhome blues players from across\u003cbr\u003ethe state including Willie King and Leo Welch.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e“The Man From the Hill” marks the first time that he’s spent\u003cbr\u003eserious time in the studio. Recorded over multiple sessions at\u003cbr\u003eProducer Bruce Watson’s Memphis based Delta-Sonic Sound\u003cbr\u003eStudio. Farmer enjoyed working in a North Mississippi Hill\u003cbr\u003eCountry vein with Jimbo Mathus and session drummer George\u003cbr\u003eSluppick. He even dipped back into gospel, singing harmony\u003cbr\u003etogether with Memphis’ Barnes Brothers on [the Sensational\u003cbr\u003eNightingales’] At the Meeting.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eFor the past thirty years Farmer has run his own auto repair\u003cbr\u003eshop, and hopes that the release of this record and associated\u003cbr\u003etouring will allow him to retire.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e“I’m trying to get out of that shop, I’m tried of messing with\u003cbr\u003ethose cars. It’s been a long time.”\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eSide A:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e1. Feel So Bad\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e2. Shake It\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e3. Break Bad\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e4. Fist Full of Dollars\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e5. Millionaire\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eSide B:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e6. Come Back Home\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e7. At the Meeting\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e8. I Am the Lighting\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e9. Daddy Was Right\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e10. The Man from the Hill\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Willie Farmer","offers":[{"title":"Vinyl","offer_id":51679851610407,"sku":"BLM0558","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Compact Disc","offer_id":51679851643175,"sku":"BLM0559","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0658\/8461\/files\/willie_farmer_-_the_man_from_the_hill-3000px_1280x1280_02eb849f-fcc8-47e4-a79b-be6fa99d37b0.webp?v=1784580052","url":"https:\/\/fatpossum.com\/products\/the-man-from-the-hill","provider":"Fat Possum Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}