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Willie Buck’s 87th Birthday Celebration

Ages 21 and up

Sunday, November 24

Show: 9pm

$15

Buddy Guy’s Legends

Online ticket cut off time is 4:00PM day of show.

 Tickets are available at the door after 5:00PM

21+ After 8:00PM

Free Dinner Jazz Set:  RicJazz  — 5:30-8:00PM
 
 Headlining Band:  Willie Buck — 9:00PM – CLOSE

21+ After 8:00PM

SEATING POLICY: 

All tickets sold are General Admission, which means table/bar seating are on a first-come, first-served basis. Buying your ticket online in advance guarantees admission (not seating). We recommend arriving early for seating. 

PHOTO/VIDEO POLICY:
No professional photo/video equipment will be allowed without a media pass.

BAG/SEARCH POLICY: 

No luggage, large bags, backpacks, briefcases, or computer bags. Small bags and purses are subject to search.

WILLIE BUCK & The Delmark All-Stars-– At Buddy Guy’s Legends, Chicago

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https://www.facebook.com/officialwilliebuck

CDs are IN!

LPs coming SOON!

“Live At Buddy Guy’s Legends” is Willie Buck’s fourth album on Delmark. First came “The Life I Love”, followed by “Cellphone Man” and Delmark LLC’s kickoff blues release “Willie Buck Way”. An elder statesman of the Chicago Blues style, who has performed with everybody and knows everyone in the scene, Willie is one of the last standard bearers of the “old school” blues as its best. This album was recorded at Buddy Guy’s Legends, ground zero for this genre in Chicago, blues capital of the world. For the occasion, Willie brought his right-hand man of many years, Thaddeus Krolicki, to join the Delmark All-Stars consisting of some of the most experienced and respected performers of the Chicago tradition

WILLIE BUCK’s LIVE at BUDDY GUY’S LEGENDS receives well-deserved rave reviews!

Kevin Johnson2 months ago073 mins

https://delmark.com/product/willie-buck-live/embed/#?secret=3wLm4Pbc5C#?secret=N3dxgTCuNn“Live At Buddy Guy’s Legends” is Willie Buck’s fourth album on Delmark. First came “The Life I Love”, followed by “Cellphone Man” and Delmark LLC’s kickoff blues release “Willie Buck Way”. An elder statesman of the Chicago Blues style, who has performed with everybody and knows everyone on the scene, Willie is one of the last standard bearers of the “old school” blues as its best. This album was recorded at Buddy Guy’s Legends, ground zero for this genre in Chicago, blues capital of the world. For the occasion, Willie brought his right-hand man of many years, Thaddeus Krolicki, to join the Delmark All-Stars consisting of some of the most experienced and respected performers of the Chicago tradition.

➊ Jumping (INSTRUMENTAL BLUES JAM) (6:33) (Admin. Delmark Records)
➋ Kansas City (4:23) (Leiber & Stoller) (Sony/ATV Songs LLC, BMI)
➌ Tried To Work Something Out (5:14) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➍ What We Were Talking About (6:03) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➎ Let’s See if We Can Come Together (4:48) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➏ Snow (6:27) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➐ Willie Buck Talking (1:04) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➑ Rock Me (6:23) (McKinley Morganfield) (Arc Music, BMI)
➒ Walking and Swimming (5:20) (William Crawford) (BMI)
➓ Mannish Boy / Hoochie Coochie Man (6:30) (Willie Dixon) (Hoochie Coochie Music, BMI)

Willie Buck: vocals
Scott Dirks: harmonica
Thaddeus Krolicki: guitar
Billy Flynn: guitar
Johnny Iguana: piano
Melvin Smith: bass
Willie “The Touch” Hayes: drums

IN MEMORIAM • WILLIE “THE TOUCH” HAYES • 1950-2023 THIS IS WAS THE LAST RECORDING IN THE AMAZING CAREER OF THE GREAT WILLIE HAYES

RECORDED LIVE BY Connor Korte AT Buddy Guy’s Legends, Sunday August 28, 2023.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION & SUPERVISION BY Julia A. Miller and Elbio Barilari

MIXED BY Julia A. Miller AND Elbio Barilari MASTERED BY Julia A. Miller AT Delmark Records

PRODUCED BY Elbio Barilari

PHOTOS BY Peter Hurley GRAPHIC DESIGN BY Al Brandtner, Brandtner Design

Street Date: August 30, 2024

The DELMARK ALL-STARS is a band that showcases a legion of Chicago blues instrumentalists that have been present for years in the label’s catalogue. Some of the most talented guitarists, harmonicists, bassists, keyboardists and drummers, take turns performing with this emblematic ensemble. This album features an experienced and illustrious team among Delmark’s stars, perfectly adapted to play the “old school” blues that Willie loves so much.

“LIVE AT BUDDY GUY’S LEGENDS” IS WILLIE BUCK’S FOURTH ALBUM ON DELMARK, and the label wanted to present something very special. It was agreed to be a live recording, the situation in which WILLIE BUCK feels most comfortable, on stage, with a great band and surrounded by his fans. It was also agreed the recording was going to take place at Buddy Guy’s “Legends”, ground zero for the blues in Chicago, the world capital of this genre.

For such an occasion, Willie and the label assembled the most suitable band for an “old style” blues session. Willie Buck is one of the last “story tellers” in the blues scene, within a tradition that goes back to Muddy Waters and even to the pre-WWII era bluesmen, as far and early as Big Bill Broonzy and other pioneers of the urban blues Chicago tradition.

THE DELMARK ALL-STARS are an outfit which showcases a legion of Chicago blues instrumentalists who have been present for years in the label’s catalogue. Some of the most talented guitarists, harp players, bassists, keyboardists and drummers take turns playing with this emblematic ensemble.

The label appealed to an experienced and illustrious team amongst Delmark’s stars, perfectly adapted to play the “old school” blues that Willie loves so much. Also, Willie brought his right-hand man of many years, guitarist THADDEUS KROLICKI, who studied with Dave Specter and has played with many prominent Chicago blues artists, such as Eddie Taylor Jr, Barrelhouse Chuck, James Wheeler, Lil’ Ed Williams, Eddie C. Campbell, and Tail Dragger. Among his influences Thaddeus includes Louis Myers, Jimmy Rogers, Robert Lockwood, Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers, Left Hand Frank and Sammy Lawhorn.

BILLY FLYNN: Since the 70’s, when he started performing with Jimmy Dawkins, Sunnyland Slim, Mighty Joe Young, and Luther Allison, Billy has become one of the most sought-after blues guitar players. The list of blues celebrities hiring Billy includes Pinetop Perkins, Kim Wilson, Otis Rush, John Primer, Barrelhouse Chuck, Jimmy Burns, Lurrie Bell, Jody Williams, Billy Boy Arnold, Bob Stroger, Johnny Burgin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Mississippi Heat, The Cash Box Kings, and of course, the Delmark All-Stars.

SCOTT DIRKS: A front row seat at a Muddy Waters performance in the mid 1970’s sent teenage Scott Dirks down the musical path he is still following today. Picking up the harmonica soon afterwards, he began collecting blues records, with a special interest in the many local blues Chicago artists who were still active on the local scene. As a harmonica player, he sought out and played with many musicians who had been associated with blues harp icon Little Walter and learned important lessons playing with post-war blues pioneers Dave and Louis Myers, Jimmy Rogers, Johnny Littlejohn, Jimmie Lee Robinson, Louisiana Red, Jody Williams, and countless others. Dirks has been involved in music production, working with Lurrie Bell, Carey Bell, Jimmy Burns, Willie Buck, and Jimmie Lee Robinson among others. He co-produced the Grammy Award winning box “Little Walter-The Complete Recordings 1950 -1967”, and also co-authored the award-winning book “Blues With A Feeling – The Little Walter Story”. Dirks lives in Chicago, where he has fronted his own band, Chicago Bound, for over 30 years.

JOHNNY IGUANA was Junior Wells’ pianist of choice. When he was 22 he moved from his hometown of Boston to Chicago, to join Junior’s band. He was also part of the band for Willie Buck’s previous album on Delmark, the best-selling “Willie Buck Way”. Among many other accomplishments, Johnny toured with the Junior Wells Band for three years, also toured with Otis Rush and recorded with Carey and Lurrie Bell, Lil’ Ed, and more. Johnny went on to play on Grammy-nominated albums by Junior Wells, “Chicago Blues History” and the “Muddy Waters 100 Band”, and he played all the piano on the “Chicago Plays the Stones” album (2018). Those releases feature Johnny playing with Buddy Guy, James Cotton, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Derek Trucks, Gary Clark Jr., Johnny Winter, Shemekia Copeland, and more. After appearing on dozens of blues albums released by other artists, Johnny released his debut blues album as a leader, on Delmark Records. “Johnny Iguana’s Chicago Spectacular” which features Lil’ Ed, John Primer, Billy Boy Arnold, Bob Margolin, Matthew Skoller, Billy Flynn, Kenny Smith, Bill Dickens, and Michael Caskey. He also recorded for Delmark a full solo piano album on a luxurious reel-to-reel all analogue format, to be released in 2024!

MELVIN SMITH: bass player extraordinaire – his career includes long periods of working with Koko Taylor, as well as Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch, Deitra Farr, Lefty Dizz, Zora Young, John Primer, and more. He is on several Delmark albums, some of them with one of his favorite drummers, the late Willie Hayes. “For an outstanding example of just how well Smith and ‘The Touch’ work together, slide Lurrie Bell’s critically-acclaimed 2013 disc – ‘Blues In My Soul’ (Delmark Records) – into the CD player. That’s old school Chicago blues at its finest”, wrote Terry Mullins in “Bluesblast”.

WILLIE “THE TOUCH” HAYES, who sadly passed away November 5th 2023, was one of the greatest drummers in blues history. “Live At Legend’s” is the last session Willie ever recorded. When he was 14 he was already on the road with Mighty Joe Young and with Koko Taylor. At 16 he became Magic Sam’s drummer. When he was 18 he joined Jimmy Johnson. His legendary nickname, “The Touch”, was given to him by Luther Allison. He performed blues, jazz, funk and R&B, and also played with Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, Son Seals, Lurrie Bell, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, The Temptations, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and Ike and Tina Turner. As an actor, Willie Hayes appeared in movies such as “Thief,” “Ali,” “Hardball” and “Road to Perdition.” While selecting the band members for this live album, Willie “The Touch” Hayes was the obvious choice.

THE ONE AND ONLY WILLIE BUCK
WILLIE BUCK was born Willian Crawford, 1937, in the small town of Houston, Mississippi. The closest “big” town was Tupelo, around 40 miles away. His father was a minister, as were many of his uncles and as is his son. Willie’s grandmother was Native American. Several of the family members played guitar, including Willie’s two sisters. “My grand-mother also had a wind-up phonograph at home. We used to have records by Big Boy Crudup, I remember one record he made, ‘I Love Your Mellow Peaches’, I used to play that all the time”, says Willie.

“Willie’s legendary life includes working on a paper mill for $5 an hour and singing around town in the evenings. During his youth he was a popular figure in what it was called the “Chitlin Circuit”, performing all across the South.

Willie’s earliest live blues experience happened when B.B. King arrived in town to play at Sally’s Juke Joint.

“I was too young to get inside the door, but I sat outside and listened. I never will forget, the last time he came to my hometown. Some of the guys, they got a little jealous, and cut his tires. He never did come back no more!”, Willie reminisces.

He also heard B.B. King broadcasting from Memphis on WDIA: “I used to listen to him on that station, he’d come on around 12:00, 12:15 in the afternoon, advertising Pepticon. He would sing that, ‘Pepticon sure is good!’”

Like many of his peers, he migrated to Chicago, in 1953, becoming one of the usual entertainers at the mythological “Maxwell Street” scene. “My brother-in-law was real good friends with Muddy and this guy that used to run the radio station, WOPA, I believe it was, Big Bill Hill. He was on the air five days a week. And by my brother-in-law being such good friends with everyone, they used to let me in the clubs, at least until the owner saw me and kicked me out! We used to see Muddy down at 35th and Indiana, Smitty’s Corner. And on 43rd Street, I was to sing with him, it was called Johnny Pepper’s. Also at Sylvio’s. He used to play in there a lot.”

Though many blues lovers have enjoyed Willie exclusively as a vocalist, it would be interesting to learn that Willie also played bass until he broke his wrist in 1964. Among others, he played bass with Magic Sam. Around 1970 Willie started putting together his own bands. “I used to hire Fred Below on drums, we’d go pick him up. Odie Payne played drums with me too. Odie Payne played on ‘Disco Blues’”.

He also had Louis Myers, Eddie Taylor, Sammy Lawhorn, Byther Smith, pianist Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, harp player Big Leon Brooks, and other Chicago “old-timers”. Willie has played with everybody and he knows everybody. When Willie and his band are joined on stage by Buddy Guy, at “Legends”, which happens frequently, Buddy likes to tell the audience how “When I started playing in Chicago, Willie was one of the guys that was already here”. Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Sammy Lawhorn, Bobby Blue Bland, “Pine Top” Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Bob Margolin, “Moose” Walker, the Myers brothers, you name them, Willie has been on stage with all of them.

In the 80’s Willie owned a club for four years. It was located at 1249 N. Clybourn, the “New Fun Lounge” where he used to present Big Time Sarah, Melvin Taylor and Junior Wells, among others.
During the 80’s, Willie also owned also an auto shop, “C & T Towing & Auto Service”. The traditional pinup calendar issued by Willie’s company would also promote the bands, including Willie, of course, and artists such as Big “Moose” Walker, Louis Myers, Odie Payne Jr. and “Dimestore” Fred. “I worked with the Myers brothers (Dave and Louis) for a long time. They were called ‘The Aces’. We were always respectful of each other when we got together. Matter of fact, they played with me until they wasn’t able to play anymore. We had some great times together. Me and them and Junior Wells used to play at a place called the Auxiliary Club, a great big place on 37th and Indiana. We played there every Friday and Saturday night for I don’t know how long.”

His loyalty to the “old-school” blues has paid-off: in 2004 Willie Buck was inducted to the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.

Willie’s discography on Delmark includes:

“THE LIFE I LOVE”, originally recorded in 1985 with a cracking band including the Myers brothers, Louis on guitar and Dave on bass, John Primer also on guitar, Little Mac Simmons on harmonica and “Big Moose” Walker on keyboards.

“CELL PHONE MAN”, featuring Johnny Burgin (known at the time as Rockin’ Johnny) and Muddy Waters’ guitar player Rick Kreher.

“WILLIE BUCK WAY”, with Thaddeus Krolicki, Billy Flynn, Johnny Iguana, and Scott Dirks, all present also on Willie’s new album, “LIVE AT LEGEND’S”.

– ELBIO BARILARI • DELMARK ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

https://delmark.com/product/857/embed/#?secret=tEcR6HSwcj#?secret=qRiVQ7llCVWillie Buck – Willie Buck Way
Delmark DE 857
Willie Buck Way is the name of an honorary street named after Willie Buck in his hometown, Chicago AND it’s the name of his new album on Delmark Records. Accompanied by Billy Flynn, Thaddeus Krolicki, guitars; Scott Dirks, Harmonica Hinds, harmonica; Johnny Iguana, piano; Bob Stroger, bass; and Jimmi Mayes, drums; Buck delivers twelve new original songs along with five covers.
Buck’s previous Delmark album, Cell Phone Man, debuted on Living Blues Radio Chart in the #1 position in the December, 2012 issue along with an 8-page feature story and a glowing album review. “His vocals are sinewy and expressive (he demonstrates a powerful upper range that even a lot of his longtime fans will find surprising) … postwar Chicago blues have long been, and remain, a contemporary music to him, and he delivers them with both urgency and elan.”
Willie Buck Way also features notes and original artwork by Plastic Crimewave (Steve Krakow) from the Secret History of Chicago Music series.

https://delmark.com/product/825/embed/#?secret=Hy2jh2Orgx#?secret=VzllDgpH9hWillie Buck – Cell Phone Man
Delmark DE 825 (2012)
Compact Disc
Willie Buck has been leading his own bands for over 40 years. He’s been on the scene since his arrival in Chicago as a teenager in the midst of the heyday of Chicago blues in 1953. He put out his only album in the early 80s which became a collector’s item over the years and was re-issued in 2010 as The Life I Love (Delmark 805). At that time it was decided Willie would create a new album for Delmark but it wasn’t until Rockin’ Johnny stepped forward that the project got off the ground. Cell Phone Man features 16 songs with a heavy dose of Muddy Waters Chicago Blues. Rockin’ Johnny Band is Rockin’ Johnny, Rick Kreher, guitar; Barrelhouse Chuck, piano; John Sefner, bass; Steve Bass, drums and special guest Bharath Rajakumar, harmonica.

https://delmark.com/product/805/embed/#?secret=I5B6m8UJgZ#?secret=sb5iKqkvOfWillie Buck – The Life I Love
Delmark DE 805 (2015)
Compact Disc
With Louis Myers, Dave Myers, Mac Simmons and Big Moose Walker! Blues vocalist Willie Buck was born in 1937 in the small town of Houston, Mississippi. Willie performed on what became known as the “Chittlin Circuit” bouncing between Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North & South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Shortly after developing his reputation, Willie migrated to Chicago in 1954 where he truly immersed himself in the Chicago Blues scene and became a real force on “Maxwell Street”. Willie was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in Chicago in the summer of 2004. The Life I Love was recorded in 1982 and was issued then in a very limited edition LP. It appears on CD for the first time now and features previously unissued live tracks totaling 65 minutes of genuine Chicago blues.

https://www.bluesblastmagazine.com/featured-interview-willie-buck/embed/#?secret=2DAgCT9Nzz

Featured Interview – Willie Buck

In the mid-1970s, the vast majority of rock and roots-related artists spent a great deal of time publicly railing against the phenomenon that was taking poplar music – along with clubs all over the world – by storm.

As acts like KC & The Sunshine Band, The Hues Corporation and Van McCoy began their weekly assaults on the Billboard charts, rock and roots-related musicians – including a number of bluesmen and women – were left pondering just how to keep their songs relevant and within earshot of the music-buying public.

However, it didn’t take Chicago bluesman supreme Willie Buck very long to fashion a suitable game-plan.

He figured, if you can’t beat ’em, you might as well join ’em.

And that’s just what Buck did, cutting the song “Disco Blues” for Chicago’s International Recording Company (IRC) in 1975. The funky and highly-danceable song (credited to P. Willie Buck) became a big hit around the Chicagoland area – and even beyond – more than validating Buck’s decision to step over to the ‘dark side.’

“Yeah, that kind of song had never been done in the blues before. That was the reason that I did that song … because there had not been anything like that done in the blues,” Buck recently said. “It was such a catchy song and for it to have the blues mixed with a little disco was really awesome. I wanted to use disco in my favor instead of run from it and that’s just what I did.”

Buck’s “Disco Blues” might have even helped to open a couple of doors and pave the way for other roots-related artists – such as Johnnie Taylor and Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson – to mix in liberal doses of funk and disco-beats into their songs and albums in the latter half of the decade.

“I think it did help some of those other blues artists (in their quest to mix things up),” he said. “Yes, I really do.”

Fully-aware of all the things happening around him in the 21st century – just as he was back in the ’70s when disco was the big thing – Buck decided to craft a tune that reflected our obsession with the latest technology of today. The result was 2012’s Cell Phone Man ( Delmark Records). The cover of the album even gives a clever wink and a nod to society’s passion for taking ‘selfies,’ as Buck holds a microphone in one hand and a cell phone with a picture of himself in the other.

Brilliant and spot-on.

“That Cell Phone Man went over very well. That was a great CD and sold very well,” said Buck. “I knew that cell phones were the hot thing and that’s why I came up with that song. I just looked around and saw people talking on cell phones and taking pictures with their phones all the time and that led me to take a closer look and write that song.”

Never one to rest on recent success, Buck has been busily penning new tunes in hopes of hitting the studio in the near future to record a follow-up to Cell Phone Man.

“I’m been working on some material and already I wrote some new songs like, “I Give So Much To You and Get Nothing in Return” and “I’m Gonna’ Leave Here Walking” and “I Got You and You Got Me,”” he said. “Oh, man … I’ve got a lot of them ready to go. I’ve got so many, I can’t name all of them. I’m getting all the songs together and then we’re going to go in and do them. I’m going to try and make this a really hot CD with all new stuff that’s never been out before … really hot.”

His ability to keep up with the latest trends aside, at the heart of his music, Buck is a deep bluesman through-and-through. Of course, there are a few elements of soul and touches of gospel, but the authentic Chicago blues in Buck’s music refuses to take a backseat to anything else.

“When I get on the bandstand, it’s like no other,” he chuckled.

Buck’s ‘cell phone’ has been blowing up lately with offers to lend a helping hand on other artist’s long-players. Those are offers that he readily accepted and you can find Buck singing on the latest album by Big Jon Atkinson & Bob Corritore (House Party at Big Jon’s (Delta Groove)), as well as New Cool Old School (Ogden Records) from Shoji Naito.

“I recorded with them (Atkinson and Corritore) in Arizona last year and they put it out this year. I sang “You Want Me To Trust You” and “I’m A King Bee” on that album,” Buck said. “And on Shoji’s album, I did “I Got To Go’ and “Honey Bee” and “I’m Ready.””

While his workload is still as impressive now as it was over four decades ago when he started to play the blues in earnest, no doubt the most exciting thing to recently happen to Buck will take place later this fall (Oct. 16) at Buddy Guy’s Legends club in the Windy City.

That’s when Buck will be enshrined into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame.

“It means a lot … it’s good to have. Another thing is that people all over the world will know about this and it will let them know I’m still out there doing it,” he said. “People just seem to love what I do, and no matter where I travel – and I travel all over – I always have big crowds.”

One of Buck’s regular gigs around Chicago takes place at Rosa’s Lounge on Thursday nights.

“Those people there just love it to death, what I do,” he said. “They sure do love it. And I don’t just do it in Chicago. I do it all over the world. I spent 39 days in Spain and Brazil. We played in a lot of theatres and clubs over there.”

He was born into a family with eight children in 1937 in the smallish town of Houston, Mississippi – not too far from Tupelo. But as he explains it, he was born as Willie Crawford, not Willie Buck.

The ‘Buck’ handle came later on down the road.

“Yeah, that’s (Crawford) my name and Willie Buck is my stage name. I’ve been using that name for years,” he said. “My mom and them gave me that nickname – Buck – and so I just put that in place of Crawford for my stage name. It just seemed like it rhymed pretty well, so that’s why I stuck with it for all these years; it just went over well.”

As a teenager, Buck fell head-over-heels in love with bluesmen like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Jimmy Rogers. But instead of trying to emulate those cats when he began to sing outside of his own bedroom, Buck used them merely for inspiration and tried to find his very own voice from the very beginning.

“Those guys were kind of my favorites, but I didn’t really try to sing like any of them. My voice was original and that’s what I wanted other people to hear,” he said. “And that’s the way that it’s always been for me. I have seen other guys out there that try to straight-up imitate other singers, but I try not to do that. I just sing with my natural voice and when I get up on the bandstand, I know I can hold my own … I don’t worry about that. I do it from the heart and that’s what it’s all about.”

Like a lot of folks in Buck’s age group, when he was a young man, he seldom ever missed listening to Ernie’s Record Mart, an hour-long rhythm-and-blues radio program hosted by the legendary John R. and broadcast on Nashville’s WLAC back in the day.

“That was a very popular show when I was coming up. I listened to it and have never forgot it – ‘179 3rd Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee (the tag line to one of the spots on the program, and address of Ernie’s Record Mart)’ – I still remember all of that. It was great,” he said. “That’s how I started to like the blues as a young man … from that program. I just kept following that music and kept following it and then I started doing it myself. When I first started singing, I was singing without a band. That’s how I started and I just went from there.”

With a couple of sisters (two of his sisters played guitar and helped inspire young Willie Buck to become a musician) already living up in Chicago at the time, Buck himself moved there from his Mississippi home-base in 1953.

“I had two sisters living in Chicago and one living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My sisters wanted me to come up and see if I liked it, so I went up to Chicago and stayed for a couple of months,” he said. “Then I went back (to Mississippi) and stayed until 1954 and then I went back to Chicago. Since coming back, I’ve been here ever since.”

Even though he was too young to enter such locales, Buck’s brother-in-law managed to sneak him into hot-spots like Pepper’s Lounge and Smitty’s Corner – joints that Buck would later play in himself – to see the late, great Muddy Waters. More than just another fan, however, it turns out that Buck’s brother-in-law was a close acquaintance of McKinley Morganfield.

“My brother-in-law and Muddy was very good friends. Muddy used to come by and pick up my brother-in-law when I first got to Chicago and they hung out together,” he said. “Believe it or not, the last show that he (Muddy) was going to do in Chicago, he was going to send for me to play with him. This guy that used to play keyboards for me – Lovie Lee – was playing with him then and he was going to send for me to come out and help him do his last show in Chicago. But then he (Muddy) took sick and never did play that show. I was really looking forward to that, because I had not seen him for a while. But he took bad sick and never did get up from that.”

Even though he had secured a job as a mechanic shortly after re-arriving back in Chicago, Buck still found the time to hit many of the clubs on the city’s south and west sides and within a year, he was gigging regularly around town. He later went on to share the bandstand with a former member of the Muddy Waters’ Band – the iconic Little Walter Jacobs.

“That was great. My bass player at the time – and for many, many years – was Dave Myers and he had played with Little Walter a lot. I went to a show they were doing and got up and played and had such a great time,” he said. “And you wouldn’t believe this, but two weeks later, he (Little Walter) passed away. He sure did. He was a great guy to be around and I loved his blowing (on the harp); he was just a fantastic guy. I really enjoyed playing and hanging out with him.”

The Myers brothers were also a ton of fun to be around, says Buck.

“Yes, sir. Dave Myers was a great guy and he taught me a lot. He was good at arranging songs on records and I enjoyed hanging around with him, too,” he said. “We just worked great together. I worked with the Myers brothers (Dave and his brother Louis) for a long time. They was called The Aces. Other people had said they couldn’t get along with them, but I never had any trouble with them guys. We were always respectful of each other when we got together. I could never talk bad about them. Matter of fact, they played with me until they wasn’t able to play anymore. We had some great times together. Me and them and Junior Wells used to play at a place called the Auxiliary Club, a great big place on 37th and Indiana. We played there every Friday and Saturday night for, I don’t know how long. Junior was a nice guy, too.”

In 1982, Buck cut a full-length album, I Wanna Be Loved. But instead of propelling Buck into the upper stratosphere of blues stardom, the album hardly received a notice. However, Buck was neither depressed nor disappointed by I Wanna Be Loved’s lack of instant success.

“You know, I’ve always been the type of guy to never get discouraged. I always say, ‘If that one don’t do it, we’ll just move on to the next one.’ That’s the way that I was then and the way that I still am,” he said. “It didn’t do what I would have loved for it to do, but I didn’t just get down and out about it. My base has always been if one don’t work, we’ll keep doing it until we get one that does work.”

That disposition is certainly admirable, but as it turns out, I Wanna Be Loved did end up being the album that Buck hoped that it would. It just took it nearly 30 years to find it’s legs. Delmark Records reissued (and repacked, with five bonus live cuts) the album in 2010 as The Life I Love. So why did the album finally manage to connect with an audience some three decades after it initially failed to land?

“I really don’t know (what the difference was). Maybe it was the time (when it was first released) that was the problem. Maybe when they (Delmark) got ahold of it, it was just the right time for people to find out about it. I’m really not sure about all of that,” said Buck.

No matter where Buck turns up to play, whether in Chicago or whether in Belgium or even in the ‘City by the Bay,’ you can bet that he’s going to have an eager crowd ready and waiting for him to hit the stage.

“I was in San Francisco playing in this place that held about 5,000 people. They had a few bands playing before I came on and the place really wasn’t very full. But when it was time for me to come on, that place was jam-packed. I was really knocked off my feet by that,” he said. “The way I came out was, I had a wireless mic and started singing before the people in the crowd ever saw me. The crowd really liked that … it was just so awesome.”

As he nears five decades of playing the real-deal Chicago blues, Buck’s keys to success in 2016 are the same as they were back in the ’60s and ’70s. And according to the man himself, the power to a long and prosperous career has less to do with some lucky charm or mojo hand than it does with something that folks in all walks of life should do.

Worry about yourself and not about the next guy.

“I never thought that I was better than the other singers or other bands out there. I just always knew that when I hit the bandstand, I could hold my own,” he said. “I’ve never worried about what the next person can do on the bandstand … never. I’ve never let that bother me. That’s it; I worry about myself and not the next person.

Visit Willie’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/officialwilliebuck.