Willie Nix (August 6, 1922 – July 8, 1991) was an American

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

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 ...

and drummer, active in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, in the 1940s and 1950s.

Life and career

Nix was born in Memphis. He learned to

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perf ...

as a child and later, as a teenager, was a dancer and comedian with the

Rabbit Foot Minstrels The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit('s) Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long-running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and the late 1950s. It was establi ...

. This led to work in various variety shows in the 1940s, and Nix later became a part of the blues scene that grew up around

Beale Street Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, t ...

(see

Memphis Blues The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine shows a ...

). His talent for music led to performing on local radio with Robert Lockwood Jr. He joined

Willie Love Willie Love Jr. (November 4, 1906 – August 19, 1953) was an American Delta blues pianist. He is best known for his association with and accompaniment of Sonny Boy Williamson II. Biography Love was born in Duncan, Mississippi. In 1942, he ...

Joe Willie Wilkins Joe Willie Wilkins (January 7, 1921 or 1923O'Neal, Jim (1979). "Joe Willie Wilkins – 1923–1979". ''Living Blues'' 42 (January–February 1979), pp. 8–9. – March 28, 1979)Huggins, Cilla (1979). "Joe Willie Wilkins". '' Blues Unlimited'' ...

and

Sonny Boy Williamson II Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...

, billed as the Four Aces, who toured the Deep South. In further Memphis radio performances in the mid-1940s, Nix played with

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

and with

Joe Hill Louis Joe Hill Louis (September 23, 1921 – August 5, 1957), born Lester Hill, was an American singer, guitarist, harmonica player and one-man band. He was one of a small number of one-man blues bands (along with fellow Memphis bluesman Doctor Ross) ...

. Later the same decade he worked with

the Beale Streeters The Beale Streeters were a Memphis-based R&B coalition of musicians, which at times included John Alexander, Bobby Bland, Junior Parker, B.B. King, Earl Forest, Willie Nix, and Rosco Gordon. Initially, they were not a formal band, but they playe ...

. In 1951, Nix made his first

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, for RPM Records, in Memphis. A year later he recorded for Checker Records. He recorded for

Sun Records Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in February 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny ...

and other

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 ...

s in the 1950s, including the

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

-based

Chance Records Chance Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1950 by Art Sheridan. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel. Among the acts who recorded for Chance were The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Homesick James, J. B. Hutto, Brother Joh ...

and Sabre Records. Nix wrote the songs "Nervous Wreck" and "Try Me One More Time" and reworked others, such as " Catfish Blues" and Curtis Jones's "Lonesome Bedroom Blues." At various times he worked with

Big Walter Horton Walter Horton (April 6, 1921 – December 8, 1981), known as Big Walter (Horton) or Walter 'Shakey' Horton, was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming, shy man, he is remembered as one of the premier harmonica players in the hi ...

Elmore James Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...

Johnny Shines John Ned Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Biography Shines was born in the community of Frayser, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent most of h ...

Memphis Slim John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxopho ...

, and

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...

. In the late 1950s Nix was briefly a member of Willie Cobbs's band.Olsson, Bengt (1970). ''Memphis Blues''. London: Studio Vista. p. 88. . By the end of the 1950s, Nix returned to Memphis. He spent a short time in prison before 1960. Over the next twenty years he performed sporadically. As his health declined, his behaviour became more eccentric. He did not record again, although his mid-1950s work is held in high regard for his lyrical dexterity and compelling beat. Nix died in

Leland, Mississippi Leland is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. It is located within the Mississippi Delta, on the banks of Deer Creek. The population was 4,481 at the 2010 census. It was once a railway town and had long been a center of cott ...

, in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nix, Willie 1922 births 1991 deaths Memphis blues musicians American blues singers Chicago blues musicians Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee RPM Records (United States) artists 20th-century American singers 20th-century American drummers American male drummers 20th-century American male singers