At 76 years old, music legend Andre Williams has done it all.  He’s produced Ike Turner, written songs for Parliament/Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder, even managed Edwin Starr. He wrote the R&B classic ‘Shake A Tail Feather’ (1963). 

After years of battling personal demons (and eventually becoming homeless), he returned to music in the 1990s.  He’s since recorded a series of grimy punk and alt-country-influenced R&B records.  On the latest of these, Hoods And Shades, he swaggers, raps, and pimps his way through nine slabs of garage-rock R&B bacon grease.  From the opening country shuffle (‘Dirt’) all the way to the closing blues come-on  (‘Gimme’), it  feels like the soundtrack to a Blaxploitation film made in the deep south.   He even takes a cue from  SnoopDogg in ‘I’ve Got Money On My Mind’.  Williams brings it lowdown and dirty –just the way it ought to be.  

About the author: Michael Franklin is the Media & Reserves Specialist at WKU Library’s Visual & Performing Arts Library. Michael is also a professional musician and sound engineer.