Monday, July 20, 2009

ANDRE WILLIAMS RETURNS TO HIS DETROIT ROOTS...


In the very cool news department, Detroit R&B/"punk blues" pioneer Andre Williams was recently in town to record a new project with some of D-Town's finest musicians, past and present.

For those few of you who don't know, Williams first made a name for himself in the late '50s on Detroit's legendary Fortune Records label. During the next several decades, he had numerous historical landmarks -- such as writing "Shake a Tail Feather" (which was a hit for the Five Du-Tones and later Ike & Tina Turner, as well as a standout on the soundtracks to both The Blues Brothers and Hairspray films); co-writing Stevie Wonder's first-ever song, spending time doing various things at Motown (where he supervised the recording of two albums by the Contours and served as manager and roadie for Edwin Starr of "War" fame); recording for Chicago's pioneering Chess label; writing songs for Parliament/Funkadelic, etc., etc. In other words, the man who comedian Redd Foxx once dubbed "Mr. Rhythm" is one monster of an icon and has been on an artistic comeback after years of drug problems and even a brief period spent homeless in Chicago, where he now resides. Read the full article on Metro Times

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