Directly from Streets

The legendary blues and R&B singer Andre Williams, often referred to as the Godfather of punk blues, scored his first hit with the self penned "Bacon Fat," which rose to # 9 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1957. As a songwriter, Williams wrote Stevie Wonder's first song, "Thank You for Loving Me" in the early 1960's, and "Shake A Tail Feather" which became a hit for Ike & Tina Turner. In the late 1960's Williams signed with the Chess Records subsidiary Checker, Chicago's major blues imprint and had many hits with the label. In the 1970's Williams wrote some songs for funkmeisters Parliament Funkadelic and also began to produce albums for Ike Turner. He literally disappeared in the 1980's but resurfaced in the 1990's and became busier than ever, recording for the indie label Bloodshot Records starting in 1999 and dabbling in punk, country music and sweaty R&B. The wildly eccentric Williams hooked up with the equally eccentric Jerry Williams Jr., AKA Swamp Dogg, and released a little known album titled "Directly From The Streets" in 1990. Williams (Andre) wrote all the material and Swamp Dogg supervised the production. Finally available in the digital domain, all tracks have been newly remastered.