Willie James Foster was born "like a rabbit"
between the rows of a cotton field outside of
Leland,
Mississippi,on
September 19, 1921. His mother went into labor while picking
cotton on the plantation where she sharecropped. After Willie's
birth she wasn't able to have any more children (delta musicians).
Photo below: Charlie Love Jacobs of the Tangents and Willie Foster Courtesy of Duff Durrough of
the Tangents
At
age five he recognized he would like to play an instrument, so he bought
juice harps and made a diddly bow. At age seven he bought his
first harmonica for 25 cents that he had saved from carrying water to
the fields for two weeks of pay. He became the first musician of
his family. The Fosters had little money and often he had sacks
tied on his feet for shoes. Willie Foster quit school in the
fourth grade.
In 1937, Foster saw Muddy Waters perform at the
Dunleith plantation, and he also remembered a visit by John Lee
"Sonny
Boy" Williamson. In 1938, at age 17, Foster migrated to the north to
Detroit, Michigan, where he worked in factories for three years.
Then he signed up for World War II duties. He was stationed in
England and recalled his first stage appearance a performance on the
harp during a talent show.
Once he left the service, Foster shuttled between Mississippi, Detroit,
and Chicago, before he settled in St. Louis, where he formed with the
3W's. Willie Foster, Willie Williams, and Willie Howard made up
the members of the group. In 1951, he performed for his first
paying job as a musician at Green's Grocery where they played for a
soda. In 1953, Willie Foster met Muddy Waters
in Chicago, where they both performed. In 1963, Foster
moved back to Mississippi to care for his father, who had been in a
severe car accident. He began playing area jukes in Holly Ridge,
Indianola, and Greenville (deltaboogie.com)
In the 70's, when he was living in Greenville,
Foster was playing regularly with James "T-Model" Ford, Asie Payton, and
Frank Frost. In the 80's he formed a new band "Rhythm and Blues Upsetters. In 1992 he traveled to New Zealand for an extended stay
with the band of Midge Mardsen. While in New Zealand, Foster cut
his foot in the ocean, an injury that caused infection that eventually
led to the amputation of both legs.
Foster's first CD,
At
Home With The Blues was
issued on the Greenville-based RMD Music label in 1993. Two more
CD's followedMy
Life and I
Found Joyfollowed
on the Palindrome label (Living
Blues.html) In 1996 he visited the Netherlands to appear at
the Blues Estafette Festivalin
Utrecht, and returned to the country in 1999 for
theKwadendamme Blues Festival.
In 2000,Live
At Airport Grocerywas
released by Mempho Recordings. (Living Blues.html).
Willie Foster died of a heart attack in his
sleep after a performance at a private party in Jackson, Tennessee,
early on the morning of May 20, 2001. The Willie Foster Band aka
the Rhythm & Blues Upsetters performed as a tribute to the late Willie
J. Foster at the Historic Princess Theater in downtown Columbus
Mississippi, on Sat. May 18th 2002, a year after the 79-year-old
bluesman Willie Foster died in a hotel room on Sunday, May the 20th
2001. Foster is survived by his wife Chestrene, six children,
twelve grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He lays at
rest in Holly Ridge near his parents.
