This Blue World
You can see some videos from my documentaries: Pierogi Blues,Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street and Philipp Fankhauser & Margie Evans - Still Singing These Blues, showing the similarities and differences in the expression of the blues, in these countries where the blues has found a home.
Philipp Fankhauser & Margie Evans
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Uncle Johnnie Williams
Fearing he’d shot and killed a man, 18 year old Johnny Antwan changed his name to Johnnie Williams and, in his words, “got lost.” After leaving Mississippi, he headed to Texas, then north to Chicago, landing at Maxwell Street where he learned to play the blues. There, he played and recorded with some of the best blues artists of his time – Johnny Young, Snooky Prior, Hound Dog Taylor, Floyd and Moody Jones, and the great Little Walter. Johnnie recorded on the Ora-Nelle, Planet and Chance labels. Eventually, Williams discovered that the murder he’d been running from was a non-lethal shooting, and that his victim was alive. In 1959, at the age of 53, he had a religious conversion, joined the Baptist church and became a deacon until the end of his life.
On July 27, 2005, Phil Ranstrom and his crew interviewed 99 year old Uncle Johnnie in his home on Chicago’s west side. In this video clip, Uncle Johnnie gives us a rich and heartbreaking description of this music of pain and suffering, “the blues”, America’s original music genre. Seven months later, Uncle Johnnie passed away, just two months before his 100th birthday.
Uncle Johnnie Williams is featured in the documentary film, “Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street,” and its companion film, “Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues.”
John Primer, Chicago Blues Artist
John Primer is the last of blues generation who performed with and learned from the great pioneers of the modern blues movement, artists like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Junior Wells. John appears in the feature documentary, CHEAT YOU FAIR: THE STORY OF MAXWELL STREET, produced, directed and written by Phil Ranstrom, and narrated by actor, Joe Mantegna.