Editing Blind Willie McTell

{{Short description|Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist (1898–1959)}}
{{for|the Bob Dylan song|Blind Willie McTell (song)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Blind Willie McTell
| image           = Blind Willie McTell LOC.jpg
| caption         = McTell recording for [[John Lomax]] in an [[Atlanta]] hotel room, November 1940
| image_size      =
| birth_name      = William Samuel McTier
| alias           = {{hlist|Blind Sammie|Georgia Bill|Hot Shot Willie|Blind Willie|Barrelhouse Sammy|Pig & Whistle Red|Blind Doogie|Red Hot Willie Glaze|Eddie McTier}}
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1898|5|5|mf=y}}
| birth_place     = [[Thomson, Georgia]], U.S.
| death_date      = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1959|8|19|1898|5|5}}
| death_place     = [[Milledgeville, Georgia]], U.S.
| instrument      = {{hlist|Guitar|vocals}}
| genre           = {{hlist|[[Country blues]]|[[Piedmont blues]]|[[ragtime]]|[[Delta blues]]|[[gospel music|gospel]]}}
| occupation      = {{hlist|Musician|songwriter|[[songster]]|preacher}}
| years_active    = 1910s–1956
| label           = {{hlist|[[Victor Records|Victor]]|[[Columbia Records|Columbia]]|[[Okeh Records|Okeh]]|[[Vocalion Records|Vocalion]]|[[Decca Records|Decca]]|[[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]]|[[Regal Records (1946)|Regal]]|[[Prestige Records|Prestige]]|[[Transatlantic Records|Transatlantic]]}}
| website         = 
}}

'''Blind Willie McTell''' (born '''William Samuel McTier'''; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was an American [[Piedmont blues]] and [[ragtime]] singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated [[finger picking]] guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players. Like his Atlanta contemporaries, he came to use [[twelve-string guitar]]s exclusively. McTell was also adept at [[slide guitar]], unusual among ragtime bluesmen. He sang in a smooth and often laid-back [[tenor]] which differed greatly from the harsher voices of many [[Delta blues]]men such as [[Charley Patton]]. He performed in various musical styles including blues, ragtime, [[Gospel music|religious music]], and [[hokum]] and recorded more than 120 titles during fourteen recording sessions.

He was born William Samuel McTier<ref name=UNC>Conner, Patrick. "[http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sounds/piedmontblues/mctell.html Blind Willie McTell] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101173308/http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sounds/piedmontblues/mctell.html |date=November 1, 2013 }}". ''East Coast Piedmont Blues''. University of North Carolina. Retrieved June 30, 2011.</ref> in the Happy Valley community outside [[Thomson, Georgia]]. In his recordings of "Lay Some Flowers on My Grave", "Lord, Send Me an Angel" and "Statesboro Blues", he pronounces his surname ''MacTell'' with the stress on the first syllable. He learned to play the guitar in his early teens from his mother and from relatives and neighbors in Statesboro where his family had moved. He was a popular performer on the streets of several Georgia cities, including [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]] and [[Atlanta]] where he made his first recordings, eight songs, for [[Victor Records]] in 1927 including "Statesboro Blues." .<ref name=green>Green, Justin. ''Musical Legends''. {{ISBN|0-86719-587-8}}.</ref> He never had a major [[hit record]] but he had a prolific recording career with different labels and under different names in the 1920s and '30s.  McTell was active in the 1940s and '50s playing at house rent parties, on street corners, at fish fries, on the medicine and tent show circuit, playing on the streets of Atlanta, often with his longtime friend, [[Curley Weaver]] as well as hoboing through the South and East. He made his last recordings in 1956 at an impromptu session recorded by an Atlanta record store owner. He died three years later, having lived for years with diabetes and alcoholism. Despite his lack of commercial success, he was one of the few blues musicians of his generation who continued to actively play and record during the 1940s and '50s. He did not live to see the [[American folk music revival]] when many other bluesmen were rediscovered.<ref name=NGE/>

==Biography==
Most sources give the date of his birth as 1898 but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest 1903 on the basis of his entry in the [[1910 census]].<ref name="bare">{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger | location= Santa Barbara, California| pages=270 | isbn= 978-0313344237}}</ref> McTell was born [[Blindness|blind]] in one eye and lost his remaining vision by late childhood. He attended schools for the blind in Georgia, New York and Michigan and showed proficiency in music from an early age, learning to read and write music in [[braille]],<ref name="NGE"/> first playing the harmonica and accordion and turning to the six-string guitar in his early teens.<ref name=NGE>Jacobs, Hal. "[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-875 Blind Willie McTell]". ''The New Georgia Encyclopedia''. November 3, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2011.</ref><ref name=UNC /> His family was rich in music; both of his parents and an uncle played the guitar and he and bluesman and gospel pioneer [[Thomas A. Dorsey]] were cousins.<ref name=UNC /> 

McTell's father left the family when Willie was young. After his mother died, in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became an itinerant [[songster]]. Like [[Lead Belly]], another songster who began his career on the streets, McTell favored the [[twelve-string guitar]] whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing. In the years before [[World War II]], McTell traveled and performed widely, recording for several labels under different names: Blind Willie McTell for [[Victor Recording Company|Victor]] and [[Decca Records|Decca]], Blind Sammie for [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], Georgia Bill for [[Okeh Records|Okeh]], Hot Shot Willie for Victor, Blind Willie for [[Vocalion Records|Vocalion]] and [[Bluebird Records|Bluebird]], Barrelhouse Sammie for [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]], and Pig & Whistle Red for [[Regal Records (1949)|Regal Records]].<ref name="Devil">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/125 125/7]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/125}}</ref> The name "Pig & Whistle" was a reference to a chain of barbecue restaurants in Atlanta;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pignwhistle.net/history|title=Pig'n Whistle {{!}} Pig'n Whistle Georgia History|website=Pignwhistle.net|access-date=May 10, 2019}}</ref> McTell often played for tips in the parking lot of a Pig 'n Whistle restaurant. He also played behind a nearby building that later became Ray Lee's Blue Lantern Lounge. 

McTell married Ruth Kate Williams,<ref name="NGE"/> now better known as [[Kate McTell]], in 1934. She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings before becoming a nurse in 1939. For most of their marriage, from 1942 until his death, they lived apart, she in [[Fort Gordon]], near Augusta, and he working around Atlanta.

In 1940, John Lomax, a [[Classics]] professor at the [[University of Texas at Austin]] and his wife, [[Ruby Terrill Lomax]], interviewed and recorded McTell for the [[Archive of American Folk Song]] of the [[Library of Congress]] in a two-hour session held in their hotel room in Atlanta.<ref name="Russell 3">{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|location=Dubai|page=13|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}</ref> These recordings captured McTell's distinctive musical style which bridges the gap between the country blues of the early part of the 20th century and the more conventionally melodious, [[ragtime]]-influenced East Coast, Piedmont blues sound. The Lomaxes also elicited from him traditional songs (such as [[Boll Weevil (song)|"The Boll Weevil"]] and [[John Henry (folklore)#Music|"John Henry"]]) and spirituals (such as "[[Amazing Grace]]"),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/afc9999005.12068/ |title=Audio Recording: Amazing Grace |website=loc.gov |date=November 1940 |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=July 29, 2019}}</ref> which were not part of his usual repertoire. In the interview, John Lomax is heard asking if McTell knows any "complaining" songs (an earlier term for [[protest song]]s), to which he replies somewhat uncomfortably and evasively that he does not. The Library of Congress paid McTell $10, the equivalent of $154.56 in 2011, for this two-hour session.<ref name=green /> The material from this 1940 session was issued in 1960 as an LP and later as a CD under the somewhat misleading title ''The Complete Library of Congress Recordings'' notwithstanding the fact that it omitted some of Lomax's interactions showing kindness to him and entirely omitting the contributions of Ruby Terrill Lomax.{{refn|group=note|McTell's biographer [[Michael Gray (author)|Michael Gray]] attributes these omissions to the folklore archivist Rae Korson, who was evidently hostile to his [[New Deal]] folklore predecessors at the library: "The widely sold version of the McTell-Lomax sessions deletes conversations and information, removes Ruby Lomax from the room almost entirely, making John Lomax seem to monopolize things and keep her silent which he doesn't at all, and robs Lomax of several touches of warmth and humanity, including questions asked by Ruby Terrill and John Lomax."{{sfn|Gray|2009|p=273}}}}

[[Ahmet Ertegun]] visited Atlanta in 1949 in search of blues artists for this new [[Atlantic Records]] label and after finding McTell playing on the street, arranged a recording session. Some of the songs were released on 78 rpm discs but sold poorly. The complete session was released in 1972 as ''Atlanta Twelve-String''. McTell recorded for [[Regal Records (1949)|Regal Records]] in 1949 but these recordings also met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform around Atlanta but his career was cut short by ill health, mostly due to [[diabetes]] and [[alcoholism]]. In 1956, an Atlanta record store owner, Edward Rhodes, discovered McTell playing in the street for quarters and enticed him into his store with a bottle of bourbon where he captured 13 songs on a tape recorder which [[Prestige Records]]/[[Bluesville Records]] posthumously released as his ''Last Session''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/mctell.html|title=Blind Willie McTell|publisher=bluesnet|access-date=November 17, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420180950/http://bluesnet.hub.org/readings/mctell.html|archive-date=April 20, 2010}}</ref> From 1957 to 1959, McTell was a preacher at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Atlanta.<ref name="NGE"/>

Blind Willie McTell died of a stroke in [[Milledgeville, Georgia]], in 1959, at the age of 61. He was buried at Jones Grove Church, near Thomson, Georgia, his birthplace. Author [[David Fulmer]], who in 1992 was working on ''Blind Willie's Blues'', a documentary about McTell, arranged to have a blue marble gravestone erected on his resting place.{{cn|date=May 2025}} McTell was inducted into the [[Blues Foundation]]'s [[Blues Hall of Fame]] in 1981<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blues.org/halloffame/inductees.php4?YearId=24 |title=1981 Hall of Fame Inductees|access-date=February 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210120359/http://blues.org/halloffame/inductees.php4?YearId=24 |archive-date=February 10, 2009 }}</ref> and the [[Georgia Music Hall of Fame]] in 1990.<ref name="NGE"/>

==Influence==
[[File:StatesboroBlues.jpg|thumb|right|Label of "Statesboro Blues", one of McTell's most notable works]] McTell's influence extended over a wide variety of artists. His most famous song, "[[Statesboro Blues]]" was adapted by [[Taj Mahal (musician)|Taj Mahal]] with [[Jesse Ed Davis]] on slide guitar, then covered and frequently performed by the [[The Allman Brothers Band|Allman Brothers Band]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1982|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/110 110]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/110}}</ref> It also shows up on Canned Heat's "Goin' Up the Country" album. A short list of some of the artists who have performed the song includes [[David Bromberg]], [[Dave Van Ronk]], [[The Devil Makes Three (band)|The Devil Makes Three]], [[Chris Smither]] and [[Ralph McTell]], who changed his name because he liked the song.<ref>Hockenhull, Chris (1997). ''Streets of London: The Official Biography of Ralph McTell''. Northdown. p. 40. {{ISBN|1-900711-02-8}}.</ref> [[Ry Cooder]] covered McTell's "Married Man's a Fool" on his 1973 album, ''[[Paradise and Lunch]]''. [[Jack White (musician)|Jack White]], of the [[The White Stripes|White Stripes]], considers McTell an influence; the White Stripes album ''[[De Stijl (album)|De Stijl]]'' (2000) is dedicated to him and features a cover of his song "Southern Can Is Mine". The White Stripes also covered McTell's "[[Lord, Send Me an Angel]]", releasing it as a single in 2000. In 2013, Jack White's Third Man Records teamed up with Document Records to issue ''The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order of Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and the Mississippi Sheiks''.

[[Bob Dylan]] paid tribute to McTell on at least four occasions. In his 1965 song "[[Highway 61 Revisited]]", the second verse begins, "Georgia Sam, he had a bloody nose", an allusion to one of McTell's many recording names (Note: there is no evidence that he used this name on any recordings). Dylan's song "[[Blind Willie McTell (song)|Blind Willie McTell]]" was recorded in 1983 and released in 1991 on ''[[The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3]]''. Dylan also recorded covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, ''[[World Gone Wrong]]'';{{refn|group=note|In the liner notes for that album, Dylan wrote, "'Broke Down Engine' is a Blind Willie McTell masterpiece ... it's about Ambiguity, the fortunes of the privileged elite, flood control—watching the red dawn not bothering to dress {{sic}}."<ref>{{Cite AV media notes |title=World Gone Wrong |year=1993 |url=http://www.bobdylan.com/albums/world-gone-wrong/ |access-date=April 13, 2020 |first=Bob |last=Dylan |author-link=Bob Dylan |type=liner notes |publisher=Special Rider Music }}</ref>}} Dylan's song "Po' Boy", on the album ''[[Love and Theft (Bob Dylan album)|Love and Theft]]'' (2001), contains the lyric "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".<ref>"Kill It Kid", ''Last Session'', Bluesville BV 1040, released 1962.</ref>

The Bath-based band [[Kill It Kid]] is named after the song of the same title.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/12/kill-it-kid-interview-sxsw-2010/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909223850/http://www.spinner.com/2010/03/12/kill-it-kid-interview-sxsw-2010/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 9, 2012 |title=kill it kid interview sxsw 2010 |publisher=Spinner.com |date=March 12, 2010 |access-date=February 14, 2012 }}</ref>

A billiards bar and concert venue in Statesboro, Georgia, was named Blind Willie's in the 1990s.  The venue is now closed but remains a fond memory for Georgia Southern University students at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/100018062120/|title=I partied at Blind Willies (Statesboro, Ga.)|website=Facebook.com|access-date=January 29, 2020}}</ref>

Another Blind Willie's bar in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta named after McTell that features blues musicians and bands.<ref name="blindwilliesblues.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.blindwilliesblues.com/|title=Blind Willie's – Atlanta's Finest Blues Bar|website=Blindwillieblues.com|access-date=July 22, 2015}}</ref> The Blind Willie McTell Blues Festival is held annually in Thomson, Georgia.<ref name="blindwilliesblues.com"/>

In 1996, the novelist and former music journalist David Fulmer released ''Blind Willie's Blues'', a 53-minute documentary about McTell’s life, times, and music, with interviews with African-American history professor Daphne Duval Harrison, blues musician Taj Mahal, guitarist Stefan Grossman, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, McTell's former brother-in-law Rev. A.J. Williams, and Edward Rhodes, who produced McTell's ''Last Sessions'' recording. In late 2023, the film was remastered by the Southeastern Folklife Collection at Valdosta State University and is currently streaming on YouTube.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8iPBtbcJsM&t=48s|title=Blind Willie's Blues|date=November 7, 2023|access-date=December 2, 2024|via=YouTube}}</ref>

==Discography==
===Singles===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! A-side
! B-side
! Label
! Cat. #
! Moniker
! Note
|-
| rowspan=2|1927
| "Stole Rider Blues"
| "Mr. McTell Got the Blues"
| rowspan=4|Victor
| 21124
| rowspan=4|Blind Willie McTell
|
|-
| "Writing Paper Blues"
| "Mamma, Tain't Long Fo' Day"
| 21474
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1928
| "Three Women Blues"
| "[[Statesboro Blues]]"
| V38001
|
|-
| "Dark Night Blues"
| "Loving Talking Blues"
| V38032
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1929
| "Atlanta Strut"
| "Kind Mama"
| rowspan=2|Columbia
| 14657-D
| rowspan=2|Blind Sammie
|
|-
| "Travelin' Blues"
| "Come on Around to My House Mama"
| 14484-D
|
|-
| "Drive Away Blues"
| "Love Changing Blues"
| Victor
| V38580
| Blind Willie McTell
|
|-
| 1930
| "Talking to Myself"
| "Razor Ball"
| rowspan=2|Columbia
| 14551-D
| rowspan=2|Blind Sammie
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1931
| "Southern Can Is Mine"
| "Broke Down Engine Blues"
| 14632-D
|
|-
| "Low Rider's Blues"
| "Georgia Rag"
| rowspan=2|OKeh
| 8924
| rowspan=2|Georgia Bill
|
|-
| "Stomp Down Rider"
| "Scarey Day Blues"
| 8936
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1932
| "Mama, Let Me Scoop for You"
| "Rollin' Mama Blues"
| rowspan=2|Victor
| 23328
| rowspan=2|Hot Shot Willie
| rowspan=2|with [[Kate McTell|Ruby Glaze]]
|-
| "Lonesome Day Blues"
| "Searching the Desert for the Blues"
| 23353
|-
| rowspan=6|1933
| "Savannah Mama"
| "B and O Blues No. 2"
| rowspan=6|Vocalion
| 02568
| rowspan=6|Blind Willie
|
|-
| "Broke Down Engine"
| "Death Cell Blues"
| 02577
|
|-
| "Warm It Up to Me"
| "Runnin' Me Crazy"
| 02595
|
|-
| "It's a Good Little Thing"
| "Southern Can Mama"
| 02622
|
|-
| "Lord Have Mercy, if You Please"
| "Don't You See How This World Made a Change"
| 02623
| with "Partner" ([[Curley Weaver]])
|-
| "My Baby's Gone"
| "Weary Hearted Blues"
| 02668
|
|-
| rowspan=5|1935
| "Bell Street Blues"
| "[[Lord, Send Me an Angel|Ticket Agent Blues]]"
| rowspan=5|Decca
| 7078
| rowspan=5|Blind Willie McTell
| rowspan=3|with [[Kate McTell]]
|-
| "Dying Gambler"
| "God Don't Like It"
| 7093
|-
| "Ain't It Grand to Be a Christian"
| "We Got to Meet Death One Day"
| 7130
|-
| "Your Time to Worry"
| "Hillbilly Willie's Blues"
| 7117
|
|-
| "Cold Winter Day"
| "Lay Some Flowers on My Grave"
| 7810
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1950
| "Kill It Kid"
| "Broke-Down Engine Blues"
| Atlantic
| 891
| Barrelhouse Sammy
|
|-
| "River Jordan"
| "How About You"
| rowspan=3|Regal
| 3260
| rowspan=2|Blind Willie
|
|-
| "It's My Desire"
| "Hide Me in Thy Bosom"
| 3272
|
|-
| "Love Changing Blues"
| "Talkin' to You Mama"
| 3277
| Willie Samuel McTell
| with Curley Weaver;<br/>attributed to "Pig and Whistle Band"
|}

;As an accompanist
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Artist
! A-side
! B-side
! Label
! Cat. #
! Note
|-
| 1927
| Alfoncy and Bethenea Harris
| "Teasing Brown"
| "This Is Not the Stove to Brown Your Bread"
| Victor
| V38594
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1931
| rowspan=3|Ruth Willis
| "Experience Blues"
| "Painful Blues"
| Columbia
| 14642-D
|
|-
| "Rough Alley Blues"
| "Low Down Blues"
| rowspan=2|OKeh 
| 8921
|
|-
| "Talkin' to You Wimmin' About the Blues"
| "Merciful Blues"
| 8932
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1935
| rowspan=4|Curley Weaver
| "Tricks Ain't Walking No More"
| "Early Morning Blues"
| rowspan=3|Decca
| 7077
|
|-
| "Sometime Mama"
| "Two-Faced Woman"
| 7906
| McTell plays only on B-side
|-
| "Oh Lawdy Mama"
| "Fried Pie Blues"
| 7664
|
|-
| 1949
| "My Baby's Gone"
| "Ticket Agent"
| Sittin' In With
| 547
|
|}

===Long-plays===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Label
! Cat. #
! Note
|-
| 1961
| ''Last Session''
| [[Bluesville Records|Bluesville]]
| BV 1040
| recorded in 1956
|-
| 1966
| ''Blind Willie McTell: 1940''<br />
| [[Melodeon Records|Melodeon]] 
| MLP 7323 
| subtitled ''The Legendary Library of Congress Session'';<br/>recorded in 1940
|}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wirz.de/music/mctell.htm|title=Illustrated Blind Willie McTell discography|website=Wirz.de|access-date=April 5, 2025}}</ref>

===Selected compilations===
*''Blind Willie McTell 1927–1933: The Early Years'', [[Yazoo Records|Yazoo]] L-1005 (1968)
*''Blind Willie McTell 1949: Trying to Get Home'', [[Biograph Records|Biograph]] BLP-12008 (1969)
*''King of the Georgia Blues Singers (1929–1935)'', Roots RL-324 (1969)
*''Atlanta Twelve String'', [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]] SD-7224 (1972)
*''Death Cell Blues'', Biograph BLP-C-14 (1973)
*''Blind Willie McTell: 1927–1935'', [[Yazoo Records|Yazoo]] L-1037 (1974)
*''Blind Willie McTell: 1927–1949, The Remaining Titles'', [[TK Records|Wolf]] WSE 102 (1982)
*''Blues in the Dark'', [[MCA Records|MCA]] 1368 (1983)
*''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order'', vol. 1, [[Document Records|Document]] DOCD-5006 (1990)
*''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order'', vol. 2, Document DOCD-5007 (1990)
*''Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order'', vol. 3, Document DOCD-5008 (1990)
**These three albums were issued together as the box set ''Statesboro Blues'', Document DOCD-5677 (1990)
*''Complete Library of Congress Recordings in Chronological Order'', RST Blues Documents BDCD-6001 (1990)
*''Pig 'n Whistle Red'', Biograph BCD 126 (1993)
*''The Definitive Blind Willie McTell'', [[Legacy Recordings|Legacy]] C2K-53234 (1994)
*''The Classic Years 1927–1940'', [[JSP Records|JSP]] JSP7711 (2003)
*''King of the Georgia Blues'', [[Snapper Music|Snapper]] SBLUECD504X (2007)
* ''Last Sessions'',  Prestige Bluesville lp 1040, (1961), Original Blues Classics OBC CD-517-2, (1992)

===Selected compilations with other artists===
*''Blind Willie McTell/Memphis Minnie: Love Changin' Blues'', Biograph BLP-12035 (1971)
*''Atlanta Blues 1933'', JEMF 106 (1979)
*''Blind Willie McTell and Curley Weaver: The Post-War Years'', RST Blues Documents BDCD 6014 (1990)
*''Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920s'', vol. 5, Blues Images – BIM-105 (2007)

==Footnotes==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=note}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
* {{cite book |last1=Gray |first1=Michael |title=Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes |date=2009 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1-56976-337-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USnfNiUzfcwC |access-date=April 13, 2020 }}

===General references===
*[[Bruce Bastin|Bastin, Bruce]]. ''Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast''. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986, 1995. {{ISBN|0-252-06521-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-252-06521-7}}.
*[[Samuel Charters|Charters, Samuel]], ed. ''Sweet as the Showers of Rain''. Oak Publications, 1977, pp, 120–131.

==External links==
* [https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/blind-willie-mctell-1898-1959/ New Georgia Encyclopedia – Blind Willie McTell article]
* [http://www.wirz.de/music/mctell.htm Illustrated Blind Willie McTell discography]
* {{Find a Grave|6700344}}
* [https://archive.org/details/Blind_Willie_Mctell-Statesboro "Statesboro Blues" MP3 file on the Internet Archive]
* "Blind Willie's Blues" Documentary film by David Fulmer, 1996 and 2023] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8iPBtbcJsM&t=2102s&pp=ygUTYmxpbmQgd2lsbGllIG1jdGVsbA%3D%3 
* [http://www.davidfulmer.com/DCBPraise.html "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues" Novel by David Fulmer featuring McTell as a character] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130121083534/http://www.davidfulmer.com/DCBPraise.html |date=January 21, 2013 }}
* [http://www.thegeneralist.co.uk/audio/michael.gray.2007.07.25.mp3 John May interviews biographer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005181053/http://www.thegeneralist.co.uk/audio/michael.gray.2007.07.25.mp3 |date=October 5, 2011 }} [[Michael Gray (author)|Michael Gray]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100226194447/http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/retracing_blind_willie_s_blues/Content?oid=1095308 Review of Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell by Michael Gray]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McTell, Blind Willie}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1959 deaths]]
[[Category:African-American male singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:American male singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:American acoustic guitarists]]
[[Category:American blues guitarists]]
[[Category:American blues harmonica players]]
[[Category:American blues singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:American male guitarists]]
[[Category:American street performers]]
[[Category:Blind musicians]]
[[Category:Blind singers]]
[[Category:Bluebird Records artists]]
[[Category:Columbia Records artists]]
[[Category:Country blues musicians]]
[[Category:East Coast blues musicians]]
[[Category:People from Thomson, Georgia]]
[[Category:Piedmont blues musicians]]
[[Category:Ragtime composers]]
[[Category:Songster musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American guitarists]]
[[Category:Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Prestige Records artists]]
[[Category:Transatlantic Records artists]]
[[Category:Third Man Records artists]]
[[Category:African-American guitarists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]
[[Category:Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:American blind people]]
[[Category:American musicians with disabilities]]