Little Freddie King

Born in McComb, Mississippi in 1940, Fread E. Martin grew up playing with his blues guitar-picking father, then rode the rails to New Orleans during the early fifties. Honing his guitar chops at notorious joints like the Bucket of Blood (which he later immoralized in song), he jammed and gigged with Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker, and also played bass for Freddy King while in New Orleans. People began comparing the two musicians' styles, hence Martin's nome-de-plume. Sounding a lot like his cousin Lightin' Hopkins, Freddie King is undeniably the monarch of the Crescent City blues scene..

Freddie's 1971 LP debut, a on New Orleans' Ahura Mazda Records, shared billing with his band mate John S. "Harmonica" Williams, the nine original songs that make up the LP are raw, gut-wrenching and filled with passion. "Born Dead" is an unbelievable survey of racism in Mississippi. Freddie contributes two rocking instrumentals, "Sideways" and "The Kings' Special." While it was a milestone in New Orleans blues, the album's potent nastiness went under appreciated at the time. 36 years later Little Freddie resurfaced with ìSwamp Boogieî (Orleans Records), an album of purely original material (that features the likes of Earl "Pass the Hatchet" Stanley on bass!). He followed it in 2000 with ìSing Sang Sungî, a greasy live set that documented more New Orleans street poetry. Offbeat Magazineís Robert Fontenot captured the Little Freddie phenomena perfectly; "It ain't pretty... the slop bucket wheeze put out on his cover of King Curtis's "Soul Twist" is potent enough to turn George W. Bush into the Godfather of Soul. It's is THAT country and THAT ghetto."

Freddieís last recording was in 2005 with Fat Possum Records entitled ìYou Don't Know What I Know, received #1 record on Red Licks blues listing in England as top blues album of 2006, which contains his genius "Crackhead Joe". We've said it before and we'll say it again" Little Freddie King not only plays the blues, he lives the blues.