"Willie's Eyes"

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith

Hopson Commissary in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 2005

status: Available

This was one of the few daytime shows I attended that was not a festival, it was Willie Smith, Bob Stroger and promises of Pinetop Perkins. I loved watching Bob and Willie play together but kept wondering where Pinetop was, being that they were all billed together... I always try to stay out of view of the musicians, to get the really candid shots but that was no easy task this day... I have so many wonderful shots of especially Stroger looking into the lens and sometimes even making faces (see "Wrong Note" in this section)... as I looked around the room to see if I could spot Pinetop I noticed he had spotted me first...he put up a long finger and motioned me over.. he was surrounded by lots of excited people, especially young women... cleared a seat for me and proceeded to tell me that he had written many a song about women my shape and that he liked me... I blushed and asked him shyly if he was going to perform today... he looked at me very seriously and said, "My daddy was a Baptist preacher and my momma was a God-fearing woman - I don't play THIS kinda music on Sunday!"...  having the maternal grandmother I do (a very strict Old-South Baptist woman) I totally understood, haha. I thanked him and went back to photographing Willie and soon took this image, one of my favorites!