Blind Willie Rules / Johnny G Lyon-Blind Willie James-Rock Bottom-Thor-Robert Parker, Allen Moffatt

RIP Blind Willie James and Rock Bottom

produced by Allen Moffatt, perhaps with others
Blind Willie Rules composed by Johnny G Lyon & Rob Stoney

RIP Blind Willie James. I was recently talking to my friend Allen Moffatt. Neither of us could remember when we met. But i definitely knew him in the mid to late 80s when I began hearing that he was playing gigs in and around Tampa with the now-deceased Blind Willie James, who was a really cool older singer-keyboardist-authentic blues-ish guy who was living in St Pete, who unfortunately passed away not too many years ago. I think they had stickers made, that said "Blind Willie Rules!" I remember going to hear them, and they were indeed awesome. Communicating with the audience between songs, Willie confirmed it. He introduced himself as Blind Willie, and he said, "Blind Willie Rules!" Being considerate of his partner, he quickly added, "and Allen Moffatt." The way he said it was unique, and it stuck with me.
Not long after, Rob Stoney joined our band. He was also a big Blind Willie and Allen Moffatt fan. At times, while we were performing, he would say to the crowd, "Blind Willie rules!" for no apparent reason. One thing leading to another, we wrote and started playing the song you hear here. Quoting Willie, the lyrics say: "Blind Willie rules, and Allen Moffatt!"
Sometime soon after that, we got booked on some gig where Willie and Allen were also playing. We played the song and they heard it and liked it!
It was quite a few years after that, in the 90s, that Allen approached me about recording the song with him. He asked me to get Thor Stevens to help us too, so Thor plays sax. Somehow Allen got the late great Rock Bottom to play harmonica! Rock was known as one of the best harp players in the world before he passed away in 2001. The awesome Robert Freight Train Parker played bass, and Allen plays drums. Willie does commentary, mostly confirming that he does in fact rule. The recording we made, around 25 years ago, is what you hear in this video.
Thanks to everybody who doesn't mind me using the pics and video that i borrowed for this video. Let me know and i'll post a post making sure you get credit. Thank you and i really appreciate it!
RIP Blind Willie James and Rock Bottom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oURo7uGRD-o

Видео Blind Willie Rules / Johnny G Lyon-Blind Willie James-Rock Bottom-Thor-Robert Parker, Allen Moffatt канала JGLB2012