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Warner Williams and Jay Summerour are an American folk music duo, who perform under the name Little Bit A Blues. They have played at numerous folk and blues festivals and at concerts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. They are known for playing in the Piedmont blues style, a regional variant of the blues that developed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia.
History
Williams and Summerour have been playing music together under the name of Little Bit A Blues since the early 1990s.[1] During their tenure together, they have recorded several albums, including for the Smithsonian Folkways label. Eric Selby joined up with Williams and Summerour several years ago, completing the current trio.
Their most recent recording, The Best of Little Bit A Blues: Live at B.B. King's Bluesville, on Soul Stew Records reached number one on the Blues411 chart, was nominated for a WAMMIE for Blues/Traditional R&B Recording of the Year as well as received a JIMI Award for Best Live Recording of the Year.
Williams is a recipient of a 2011 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[2]
Williams is from Takoma Park, Maryland, Summerour from Rockville, Maryland, and Selby from Washington Grove, Maryland.
Discography
- Blues Highway (Smithsonian Folkways, 2004)
- Classic African-American Ballads (Smithsonian Folkways, 2006)
- The Best of Little Bit A Blues: Live at B.B. King's Bluesville (Soul Stew Records, 2013)
References
- ^ Leggett, Steve. "Warner Williams: Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
- ^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2011". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on May 21, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2021.