Willie D. Warren (September 11, 1924 – December 30, 2000) was an American

electric blues Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the late 1930 ...

guitarist,

bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low br ...

and

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

. In a long career, he worked with Otis Rush,

Al Benson Arthur Bernard Leaner (June 30, 1908 – September 6, 1978), who was known professionally as Al Benson, was an American radio DJ, music promoter and record label owner in Chicago between the 1940s and 1960s. He was particularly significan ...

, Little Sonny Cooper,

David Honeyboy Edwards David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Baby Boy Warren Baby Boy Warren (August 13, 1919 – July 1, 1977) was an American blues singer and guitarist who was a leading figure on the Detroit blues scene in the 1950s. Early life He was born Robert Henry Warren in Lake Providence, Louisiana, in 1919, a ...

Guitar Slim Eddie Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959), better known as Guitar Slim, was an American guitarist in the 1940s and 1950s, best known for the million-selling song " The Things That I Used to Do", for Specialty Records. It is listed in t ...

Freddie King Freddie King (September 3, 1934December 28, 1976) was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and B.B. King, none of whom were blood related). Most ...

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

Morris Pejoe Morris Pejas (April 11, 1924 – July 27, 1982), billed professionally as Morris Pejoe was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He released a string of singles in the 1950s and 1960s, but saw many of his recordings go unre ...

, Bobo Jenkins and

Jim McCarty James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only member of the band to featu ...

. One of Warren's better-known recordings was "Baby Likes to Boogie". He was described by the

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Michael G. Nastos as "one of the Midwest's true blues treasures".

Biography

Warren was born in Stamps, Arkansas, and moved with his family to

Lake Village, Arkansas Lake Village is a city in and the county seat of Chicot County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,575 at the 2010 census. It is located in the Arkansas Delta. Lake Village is named for its location on Lake Chicot, an oxbow lake for ...

, when he was 13 years old. He was taught by Caleb King to play the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, and played in his own blues ensemble around the Mississippi Delta. He taught guitar techniques to his band's singer,

, and they toured around

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

in the latter half of the 1940s. Warren relocated to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

by the early 1950s and joined Otis Rush's band. He later played alongside

and

, and he backed

on tracks recorded for Chess Records. Back in Arkansas in 1959, Warren formed the House Rockers. By the early 1970s he had moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

to work and record with Bobo Jenkins. From 1974 to 1976 he was also a featured performer, along with

(no relation), with the Progressive Blues Band, a popular blues band that performed in many of Detroit's best blues venues. When Baby Boy Warren died, in 1977, Willie D. Warren took up the duties of frontman for the band. In 1977, Warren recorded his first solo album, which was released on Jenkins's

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

, Big Star. Warren also wrote songs, including two—"Door Lock Blues" and "Detroit Jump"—that Jenkins recorded for his album ''Detroit All Purpose Blues''. Warren's recordings have been issued on two

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s. His

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''Live'', recorded for the No Cover Productions label, was not released until after Warren's death. His backing band at that time, Mystery Train, included his old friend

. Warren died in Detroit, in December 2000, at the age of 76. He left one son, Willie Hairston. The Detroit Blues Society posthumously recognized Warren's contribution to the blues with its 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Partial discography

Albums

*''Live'' (2005), Willie D. Warren & Mystery Train (No Cover Productions) *''Last Blues: The Detroit Sessions Vol 1 and Vol 2'' (2015), Willie D. Warren featuring Howard Glazer

Compilation albums

*''Hastings Street Grease Vol. 1'' (1998), Blue Suit Records *''Hastings Street Grease Vol. 2'' (1999), Blue Suit Records

References

External links