Singer and guitarist Warner Williams was surrounded by music as a child. Born in 1930 in Takoma Park, MD, Williams was playing guitar by the age of six, while his mother played the accordion, his father played guitar, piano, and fiddle, and his seven brothers and three sisters all played stringed instruments and sang, performing in the area as the Williams Family. Williams began playing for house parties, fish fries, and church functions, and in time became a fixture on the Washington, D.C., blues scene. He began playing with blues harpist Jay Summerour in the early '90s, and the duo specialized in the Piedmont blues tradition of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, billing themselves on the folk and blues circuit as Little Bit of Blues. Williams and Summerour have released two albums together, Little Bit a Blues on Patuxent Records and Blues Highway on Smithsonian Folkways. - Artist Biography by Steve Leggett
Warner Williams and Jay Summerour
Warner Williams and Jay Summerour are an American folk 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. Williams and Summerour have been playing music together under the name of Little Bit A Blues for nearly 30 years. During their tenure together, they have recorded several albums, including for the Smithsonian Folkways label. Eric Selby joined up with Warner and Jay 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 from Takoma Park, Summerour from Rockville, 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).