Wet
Willie is an American band from Mobile, Alabama, U.S. They were best
known for their hit "Keep On Smilin'," but had a number of charted songs
in the 1970s utilizing their soulful brand of Southern rock.
History
Drummer Lewis Ross assembled the musicians for a group called "Fox" in the summer of 1969, which a year later became known as "Wet Willie."[1] Wet Willie was a versatile, high-energy Southern rock band that, from 1971 until 1978, produced an array of albums awash in good-time music, rollicking high-energy blues-rock, and white Southern soul, but racked up just one Top Ten hit and a lot of admirers.
Band members
The core members of the band during that period were Jimmy Hall, vocals, harmonica, saxophone; Jimmy's brother Jack Hall on bass; John Anthony on keyboards; Ricky Hirsch on guitar, and Lewis Ross on drums and percussion. The duo of girls singing background vocals dubbed "The Williettes" were staple of the classic Wet Willie sound, and always featured Jimmy & Jack's sister, Donna Hall. Keyboardist Mike Duke also joined from The Wetter The Better LP onwards. For a short period of time in 1974 UK singer Elkie Brooks joined the band as a backing singer, as did future Honkette Leslie Hawkins.
Recordings
Wet Willie put out several albums on Capricorn Records between 1971 and 1977. Along with a "Greatest Hits" album released on Polydor Records, they also released 2 more final studio albums on Epic Records, although some hits collections and further live recordings have been released as recently as 2006. Perhaps their best-known LP is the 1973 live album, Drippin' Wet, but their main claim to fame is the hit single, "Keep On Smilin,'" which reached #10 on the Billboard singles chart. They also enjoyed some other Billboard-charted songs with "Country Side Of Life," "Everything That 'Cha Do" (Will Come Back To You), "Leona," and from their Epic Records period, "Street Corner Serenade" and "Weekend" from the LP's Manorisms and Which One's Willie? They toured and recorded extensively from 1969 through the early Eighties, and they still perform today.
Current formations
They remain an active performing band in two distinct versions. With original singer Jimmy Hall in their lineup, they are billed as Wet Willie. Shows and recordings billed as The Wet Willie Band have Ric Seymour, a member of the band since 1992, as lead singer and guitarist. For example, on the albums High Humidity (Live) (2004) and Playing Live Tonight: The Wet Willie Band (2006), it is Seymour, not Hall, who is the lead singer.
American rock band. History does not mention who the Wet Willie, whose name was called WET WILLIE, one of the most popular and interesting groups of southern boogie music scene southeastern United States, which for 70 years gave birth to a lot of different performers, led by THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, LYNYRD SKYNYRD and THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND. WET WILLIE also belonged to the pioneers of this trend.
Jimmy Hall (Jimmy Hall; vocals, harmonica, tenor sax), Ricky Hirsch (Ricky Hirsch; guitar and vocals), Jack Hall (Jack Hall; bass and vocals), John Anthony (John Anthony; keyboards and vocals) and Lewis Ross (Lewis Ross; drums), grew up in Mobile, Alabama, in the south of the united States, began playing rock n roll at school parties, and then the hard rock in local clubs and to the beginning of 1969 were united under the name FOX.
A year later, the group changed its name to WET WILLIE (presumably in honor of the character of a comic book), and by extending the scope of Svoge influence on all the neighboring states, managed to interest his music manager THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND Phil Walden, who in 1971, in the wake raised the success of its customers, has managed to achieve for WET WILLIE contract with Atco / Atlantic and helped to record their debut album, which was produced by known for his work with YES and EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Eddie Offord. The album was recorded in the charts, but it did not become a mega-Celler.
In the fall of 1971, Phil Walden, finally opened his own company Capricorn and the next album Wet Willie II, recorded with the same Offord on the Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, he has been released under his new label.
Like most groups of southern boogie, WET WILLIE appeared on the scene much more advantageous and more alive than in the studio, so their third album Drippin 'Wet, written on the eve of the New 1973 with a concert in the Warehouse club in New Orleans, was a breakthrough five southerners to nationwide popularity, managed to reach the Billboard Top50 lists and brought them the first "gold record".
On this record debuted at WET WILLIE THE WILLIETTES vocal duo composed of: Avery Ella (Ella Avery) and Storm Susie (Susie Storm). In the same 1973 the band toured the United States with the British jazz-rockers VINEGAR JOE and changed its European publishers Atco on Polydor.
Which was released in early 1974 album Keep On Smilin, produced another great master of sound Tom Dowd (Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, LYNYRD SKYNYRD et al.). His record has been involved has replaced Susie Hall Storm Donna (Donna Hall), and percussionist Jamie Dzhoenson ALLMAN BROS. The album was the pinnacle in the work of the group - it was awarded the "Golden Disk", and its title number (with atypical compound of heavy blues guitar and rhythm of reggae) was the only hit WET WILLIE.
At the end of 1984 Hall, and Hirsch was invited into the THE WILLIETTES, who from that moment became a trio, Englishwoman Elki Brooks (Elkie Brooks) from broken VINEGAR JOE. She worked with them until the middle of 1975 and then returned home, where she began an extremely successful solo career. Her place was taken by Knight Joyce (Joyce Knight).
The next album Dixie Rock (1975), again produced by Tom Dowd. It was again Dzhoenson, but the public interest in the band's music (and all southern rock) had begun to subside. After another medium album The Wetter The Better (1976), the second live album West Coast Live (1977) and a collection of the best (1977), the group began to shake the conflict ended caring Ricky Hirsch, who in the same year joined the group of Gregg Allman and worked on his albums of the late 70-ies. His place was taken by Larry Bernuold (Larry Bernwald) and Marshall Smith (Marshall Smith), both played the guitar and sang, but before the group appeared again in the studio example, Hirsch was followed by Ross, who was replaced by Theophilus Lively (Theophilus Lively; drums, vocals) .
The reorganized group signed a new contract with Epic (Capricorn was standing on the threshold of bankruptcy) and took two deprived inspiration mediocre album of hard rock: Manorisms (1978) and Which One's Willie? (1979), and in the spring of 1980 quietly disbanded. WET WILLIE members scattered groups of the second tier, and anything worthy of mention, since then have not been noticed.
Artist : Wet Willie
Album : Keep On Smilin'
Genre : Southern Rock
Year : 1974
Songs : 10
Playtime : 00:38:03
Size : 87,11 MB
Codec : MPEG 1 Layer III / Lame 3.97 / 320 kbps
001. 01 Country Side Of Life (03:30)
002. 02 Keep On Smilin' (03:57)
003. 03 Trust In The Lord (03:11)
004. 04 Soul Sister (04:55)
005. 05 Alabama (03:26)
006. 06 Lucy Was In Trouble (03:40)
007. 07 Soul Jones (04:03)
008. 08 Don't Wait To Long (03:06)
009. 09 Spanish Moss (03:45)
010. 10 In Our Hearts (04:25)
History
Drummer Lewis Ross assembled the musicians for a group called "Fox" in the summer of 1969, which a year later became known as "Wet Willie."[1] Wet Willie was a versatile, high-energy Southern rock band that, from 1971 until 1978, produced an array of albums awash in good-time music, rollicking high-energy blues-rock, and white Southern soul, but racked up just one Top Ten hit and a lot of admirers.
Band members
The core members of the band during that period were Jimmy Hall, vocals, harmonica, saxophone; Jimmy's brother Jack Hall on bass; John Anthony on keyboards; Ricky Hirsch on guitar, and Lewis Ross on drums and percussion. The duo of girls singing background vocals dubbed "The Williettes" were staple of the classic Wet Willie sound, and always featured Jimmy & Jack's sister, Donna Hall. Keyboardist Mike Duke also joined from The Wetter The Better LP onwards. For a short period of time in 1974 UK singer Elkie Brooks joined the band as a backing singer, as did future Honkette Leslie Hawkins.
Recordings
Wet Willie put out several albums on Capricorn Records between 1971 and 1977. Along with a "Greatest Hits" album released on Polydor Records, they also released 2 more final studio albums on Epic Records, although some hits collections and further live recordings have been released as recently as 2006. Perhaps their best-known LP is the 1973 live album, Drippin' Wet, but their main claim to fame is the hit single, "Keep On Smilin,'" which reached #10 on the Billboard singles chart. They also enjoyed some other Billboard-charted songs with "Country Side Of Life," "Everything That 'Cha Do" (Will Come Back To You), "Leona," and from their Epic Records period, "Street Corner Serenade" and "Weekend" from the LP's Manorisms and Which One's Willie? They toured and recorded extensively from 1969 through the early Eighties, and they still perform today.
Current formations
They remain an active performing band in two distinct versions. With original singer Jimmy Hall in their lineup, they are billed as Wet Willie. Shows and recordings billed as The Wet Willie Band have Ric Seymour, a member of the band since 1992, as lead singer and guitarist. For example, on the albums High Humidity (Live) (2004) and Playing Live Tonight: The Wet Willie Band (2006), it is Seymour, not Hall, who is the lead singer.
American rock band. History does not mention who the Wet Willie, whose name was called WET WILLIE, one of the most popular and interesting groups of southern boogie music scene southeastern United States, which for 70 years gave birth to a lot of different performers, led by THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, LYNYRD SKYNYRD and THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND. WET WILLIE also belonged to the pioneers of this trend.
Jimmy Hall (Jimmy Hall; vocals, harmonica, tenor sax), Ricky Hirsch (Ricky Hirsch; guitar and vocals), Jack Hall (Jack Hall; bass and vocals), John Anthony (John Anthony; keyboards and vocals) and Lewis Ross (Lewis Ross; drums), grew up in Mobile, Alabama, in the south of the united States, began playing rock n roll at school parties, and then the hard rock in local clubs and to the beginning of 1969 were united under the name FOX.
A year later, the group changed its name to WET WILLIE (presumably in honor of the character of a comic book), and by extending the scope of Svoge influence on all the neighboring states, managed to interest his music manager THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND Phil Walden, who in 1971, in the wake raised the success of its customers, has managed to achieve for WET WILLIE contract with Atco / Atlantic and helped to record their debut album, which was produced by known for his work with YES and EMERSON LAKE & PALMER Eddie Offord. The album was recorded in the charts, but it did not become a mega-Celler.
In the fall of 1971, Phil Walden, finally opened his own company Capricorn and the next album Wet Willie II, recorded with the same Offord on the Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, he has been released under his new label.
Like most groups of southern boogie, WET WILLIE appeared on the scene much more advantageous and more alive than in the studio, so their third album Drippin 'Wet, written on the eve of the New 1973 with a concert in the Warehouse club in New Orleans, was a breakthrough five southerners to nationwide popularity, managed to reach the Billboard Top50 lists and brought them the first "gold record".
On this record debuted at WET WILLIE THE WILLIETTES vocal duo composed of: Avery Ella (Ella Avery) and Storm Susie (Susie Storm). In the same 1973 the band toured the United States with the British jazz-rockers VINEGAR JOE and changed its European publishers Atco on Polydor.
Which was released in early 1974 album Keep On Smilin, produced another great master of sound Tom Dowd (Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, LYNYRD SKYNYRD et al.). His record has been involved has replaced Susie Hall Storm Donna (Donna Hall), and percussionist Jamie Dzhoenson ALLMAN BROS. The album was the pinnacle in the work of the group - it was awarded the "Golden Disk", and its title number (with atypical compound of heavy blues guitar and rhythm of reggae) was the only hit WET WILLIE.
At the end of 1984 Hall, and Hirsch was invited into the THE WILLIETTES, who from that moment became a trio, Englishwoman Elki Brooks (Elkie Brooks) from broken VINEGAR JOE. She worked with them until the middle of 1975 and then returned home, where she began an extremely successful solo career. Her place was taken by Knight Joyce (Joyce Knight).
The next album Dixie Rock (1975), again produced by Tom Dowd. It was again Dzhoenson, but the public interest in the band's music (and all southern rock) had begun to subside. After another medium album The Wetter The Better (1976), the second live album West Coast Live (1977) and a collection of the best (1977), the group began to shake the conflict ended caring Ricky Hirsch, who in the same year joined the group of Gregg Allman and worked on his albums of the late 70-ies. His place was taken by Larry Bernuold (Larry Bernwald) and Marshall Smith (Marshall Smith), both played the guitar and sang, but before the group appeared again in the studio example, Hirsch was followed by Ross, who was replaced by Theophilus Lively (Theophilus Lively; drums, vocals) .
The reorganized group signed a new contract with Epic (Capricorn was standing on the threshold of bankruptcy) and took two deprived inspiration mediocre album of hard rock: Manorisms (1978) and Which One's Willie? (1979), and in the spring of 1980 quietly disbanded. WET WILLIE members scattered groups of the second tier, and anything worthy of mention, since then have not been noticed.
Artist : Wet Willie
Album : Keep On Smilin'
Genre : Southern Rock
Year : 1974
Songs : 10
Playtime : 00:38:03
Size : 87,11 MB
Codec : MPEG 1 Layer III / Lame 3.97 / 320 kbps
001. 01 Country Side Of Life (03:30)
002. 02 Keep On Smilin' (03:57)
003. 03 Trust In The Lord (03:11)
004. 04 Soul Sister (04:55)
005. 05 Alabama (03:26)
006. 06 Lucy Was In Trouble (03:40)
007. 07 Soul Jones (04:03)
008. 08 Don't Wait To Long (03:06)
009. 09 Spanish Moss (03:45)
010. 10 In Our Hearts (04:25)
No comments:
Post a Comment