MIGHTY JOE YOUNG LUCILLE SPANN

I, for one, have maintained stoutly in the past few years that Mighty Joe Young is one of the Midwest’s most gifted and conclusive guitarists, and certainly Chicago’s best. I realize this is a monumental claim for anyone to make, but as a fellow musician and a decided fan of his for fourteen years, I have had the pleasurable experience of watching what was a very much advanced embryo develop and grow to be a master among his strongest contemporaries.

Joe Young was born September 23, 1927 in a remote part of the state of Louisiana, but he was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and claims that city as his home today, I met Joe in November of 1956, when he was playing lead guitar for Joe Little and his Heart Breakers, and he played with this band for about a year all over the West Side. He then left the Heart Breakers and started playing with Billy Boy -Arnold’s Band on 63rd Street at the Columbian Club. Billy Boy’s Bahd with the addition of Joe Young was one of the hottest groups on the South Side at this time.

After more than two years with Billy Boy, Joe formed his own band which did not last very long. Work was hard to get, and it was double trouble trying to hold a band together without having a gig sufficient to pay them. At this time, Jimmy Rogers was looking for a guitarist to travel with his band. Joe' started playing with Rogers and really liked it but Jimmy was playing on the road just a bit too much for Joe, who is a family man. So he started looking for a new gig after about a year with Jimmy.

Otis Rush invited Joe to come out on the West Side to the Castle Rock Lounge where he was playing. After he sat in with the Rush Band that first night, Rush hired Joe and he stayed with Otis for more than three years. Then he organized what he calls his own little thing, and this time had much more success getting jobs. You can take it from me, his own little thing is definitely one of the tightest, completely original bands on the market today.

Joe has recorded singles for Fire, Speed, USA, Webcor, Celtex and Jacklyn in the past few years, but has yet to gain wide recognition for his many efforts. He was on both albums by the late great Magic Sam, West Side Soul and Black Magic. He also recorded with Willie Dixon, appears on Tyrone Davis’ million-seller “Can I Change My Mind,” Albert King’s recent sessions and my own Delmark recordings.

So you see Joe is not just a quick find with one or two well-rehearsed tunes, hurriedly rushed into a 16-track studio geared to “capture him at his best” of the moment, lest he forget his limited talent. No, my friends, that situation is by no means applicable to Joe Young. What you will find in Joe Young is music born from dense cogitation over many years of hardship — what seemed to be a long road of endless, torment without even the merest hope of glory. Joe Young is a musician who has dedicated his all to what his heart has suffered for.

Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins

(Note: Jimmy “Fast Fingers' Dawkins is no stranger to the blues haunts of Chicago either. He's bee!n in and around the Windy City scene since 1955, having given his guitar work to such as Earl Hooker, Carey Bell, Johnny Young and Jimmy Rogers. He's played and recorded with Joe Young on several occasions, and has a fine album of his own on Delmark. — Ed.)