Terry "Big T" Williams - Mississippi Folklife Directory

Terry “Big T” Williams

Blues Guitarist & Vocalist, Clarksdale

Blues guitarist and vocalist Terry "Big T" Williams performing at a Blues Trail marker unveiling, Clarksdale, January 2007.

Williams served as a Master Artist in the Arts Commission's Folk Arts Apprenticeship program during 2006-07. His apprentice in the program was drummer Lee Williams from Clarksdale (pictured, right), who worked on learning blues bass from the elder Williams.

Terry “Big T” Williams has dedicated his life to his music. Born in Clarksdale in 1960, he spent his early years on a plantation in Farrell, Mississippi, hearing stories about Muddy Waters attending Sunday picnics in his grandmother’s yard.

These influences, as well as the music he was hearing on the radio by Deltans such as B.B. King, had an impact on him at a very young age. At nine, Big T’s father gave him a guitar and so he took it upon himself to learn how to play. Eventually, Big T came under the tutelage of legendary blues educator Johnnie Billington

He was twelve years old when the Jelly Roll Kings (Big Jack Johnson, Frank Frost, and Sam Carr) took him under their wing and eventually even took him on the road all over the world. But Big T knew he eventually wanted to front his own band, and over the years he has been with bands like The Creative Funk, The Stone Gas Band, and Big T & The Family Band. Today, Big T and his Review Band play gigs all over, but he is especially fond of the ones in his own back yard. To him, Clarksdale is home.

Williams’ most recent recording is Meet Me in the Cotton Field, a collaboration with Clarksdale bassist and vocalist Wesley Jefferson, released in Spring 2007 on St. Louis-based Broke & Hungry Records.

-Amy Evans