arlotone

Feb 26, 2010

I organized a fundraiser to buy a gravestone for Will Shade in 2008, and through that project I got to know Charlie Musselwhite, who learned to play guitar from "Son" as a teenager in Memphis. Charlie didn't remember a lot of details (apparently the jokes about Golden Harvest Sherry were true) but had fond memories of hanging out in the apartment off Beale Street with Will, his wife Jennie Mae Clayton, and assorted local musicians like Furry Lewis and Catherine Porter. Charlie remembered how close Will and Jennie Mae were, and how frail Will had become by the end of his life. Charlie came to Chicago to perform a couple songs in the fundraiser concert, "as faithfully as I remember Will Shade playing them," and these recordings can be found on YouTube.