Teddy Williams

Born in 1903 in Western Mississippi, Teddy Williams started on guitar when he was 31 years old. “Nobody taught me, I just listened to the other people.” He played local rent parties in the country, and had also played for a time in Chicago.

GEORGE MITCHELL: Do-Boy Diamond and Teddy Williams came from the same town. It was Teddy who told me about Do-Boy. Teddy was the older man, and even though Do-Boy said he learned from someone else, it sounded like he might have learned from Teddy. Or maybe they both learned from the same source. Teddy was an older man, he didn’t work. He’d sit around the courthouse square in Canton, hanging out. Canton was a bigger town than most of these places, so the black section was livelier. Lots of people hanging out in the street, music coming out of cafés. Recorded by George Mitchell in Canton, Mississippi, September 1967 Teddy Williams: Vocal and Guitar