Residing only 90 miles east of Chicago, my hometown area has experienced the great fortune to have many of the giants of the Chicago blues regularly play assorted venues in the area.  To be sure, due to the reputation of these venues located in and around my north central IN hometown, and the folks who promote the blues here, we’ve also enjoyed having the majority of national touring blues artists and bands play the area.  But, when it comes to Chicago blues artists, the mere hour and one-half drive from their homes and back again to play for rabid blues fans here in north central IN has always served us well.

The Midway Tavern & Dancehall in Mishawaka, IN has provided the greatest opportunities for Chicago blues artists in the area, with the walls of the famed venue lined to the brim with photos of the blues stars who have played there.  Throw in festivals such as the annual Firefighters Blues Festival that is held at Kamm Island Park in Mishawaka, and the Chicago blues artists know that the desire for their brand of blues in the area is high.

Willi “Big Eyes” Smith, the amazingly talented blues drummer, vocalist, harmonica player, and Muddy Waters band alum, was a frequent guest in our area.  Whenever Smith came to town, usually to play at The Midway Tavern & Dancehall, blues lovers knew that they were in for a very fine evening of blues by a man who had the credentials and capacity to make the performance special.  Always approachable, extremely good-natured, driven hard to please, and diverse in his blues aptitudes, Smith won over blues crowds here easily, and became an area favorite.  Smith aligned himself with ace guitarist, Little Frank, a South Bend, IN product, and the two formed an alliance that made Smith playing here even more exceptional.  Smith got to be on a first name basis with many blues fans in north central IN, and let it show through his congenial approach with blues fans, and via his spirited presentations.    Simply, he was always a joy to have as the evening’s blues entertainment.

Smith was born in 1936 in the one of the hotbeds of the blues, Helena, Arkansas.  Smith was brought-up by his grandparents, and was fortunate to have as nearby neighbors blues luminaries Pinetop Perkins and Robert Nighthawk.  While in Helena, Smith had the ability to see and hear blues guitarist Joe Willie Wilkins, along with blues harmonica titan, Sonny Boy Williamson II.  Also, while in his hometown, Smith was able to listen to the blues being broadcast over the region’s KFFA King Biscuit radio show, while additionally soaking-up blues influences via the blues 78rpm records in the home. 

At the age of 17, Smith made the decision to travel northward to Chicago to visit his mother.  This relocation proved to be very important in his eventual development and rise in the blues world.  His mother took Smith to see Chicago blues great, Muddy Waters, at the Zanzibar Club, and the impact that Muddy’s harmonica player, Henry “Pot” Strong, had on Smith was life-changing.  Smith was driven from that point to learn to play the harmonica, specifically, blues harmonica.  This decision also led to another life-altering change; Smith chose to stay in Chicago. 

One year later, Smith formed his first blues band, with him providing the harmonica work, while guitar chores were handled by Bobby Burns, with drum support handled by Clifton James.  1955 saw Smith marry, and he committed to stop performing professionally.  However, in less than one year, Smith was again playing, this time in a band named the Rocket Four that included Chicago guitarist Arthur “Big Boy” Spires, with Smith taking the temporary moniker, Little Willie Smith.  1955 also found Smith participating in a recording session with Bo Diddley for one of his songs on the Checker label.

There were some lean years for Smith, and he determined that versatility would make him more in-demand.  Having taught himself the basics of drumming when he learned the harmonica, he now considered himself a double threat, as he strove to more in-depth percussion understandings and techniques.  He again attempted to front his own blues band, and eventually found himself playing drums with Hudson Shower’s Red Devil Trio aggregations.

However, more thin years followed, and Smith actually found himself on public assistance.  But, his big break came in 1961 when he joined Muddy Waters’ band.  At the time, Waters’ band had a powerhouse stable of bluesmen, including stellar blues guitarists Luther Tucker and Pat Hare, solid blues harmonicist George “Mojo” Buford, and blues piano master Otis Spann.  However, during the middle 1960s, Smith left the band and took a job driving a taxi cab.  This twist, though, did not last long, as by the later 1960s, Smith again joined with Waters, and remained in his great blues bands until 1980. 

Smith was a foundation in Waters’ bands, providing rock-solid percussion support, often being associated with the well-defined low end tendered by bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, a Waters band member from 1970-1980.

Smith is said to have recorded on 12 separate sessions with Waters during his tenure with the bluesman (nine albums total), accruing to 84 total cuts.  It is interesting to note that Smith played with Waters when all six of his Grammy Award winning albums were made between 1971-1979, though he did not play on each collection. 

As I have previously written about, 1980 saw the bulk of Waters’ band quit after monetary disputes.  Waters band alums Smith, Jones, and harmonica player Jerry Portnoy joined forces with Chicago bluesman Louis Myers to form The Legendary Blues Band, a group that released       seven albums from 1980-1993, all the while undergoing personnel changes.  The only Waters band member who did not join the group was Bob Margolin, as he went forward on his own.  The band would go on to tour with luminaries such as Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan.

It was also during this period, in 1980, when Smith appeared in the full-length movie, The Blues Brothers, and along with only John Lee Hooker, received an up-close moment during a musical scene at the open-air Maxwell Street Market. 

During the period with The Legendary Blues Band, Smith refined his vocal abilities. 

Smith began his solo recording career in 1995 with an outing on the Blind Pig Records label.  As a front man, Smith recorded eight albums, with his 2011 Telarc label collection, Joined At The Hip, winning a Grammy Award.  Along with the seven albums Smith recorded with The Legendary Blues Band, his recorded output comprised at least 15 more albums by other artists, including nine with Waters dating to 1966.      

Smith succumb in the aftermath of a stroke in 2011.       

I can still clearly see Smith at The Midway Tavern & Dancehall grinning ear-to-ear, up-close with his audience in that intimate room, gleefully singing, blowing harmonica, and beating-out an unfaltering rhythm on his drum kit.  With Little Frank on guitar (his often bandmate and recording partner), Smith always seemed at-home at the venue, and seemed to revel in how the north central IN crowds embraced him, his blues lineage, and the friend he grew to be with his local blues hosts.

Smith was a triple-threat bluesman on harmonica, drums, and vocals.  His kind, as they say, will likely not come our way again.