Joe Willie and Stack were lifelong friends and had deservedly substantial reputations gained as the guitar players and vocalists in (Rice Miller) Sonny Boy Williamson's King Biscuit Band. As such, they were featured performers on the seminal King Biscuit Flour radio program broadcast on station KFFA from Helena, AR in the forties. The first electric guitar Muddy Waters ever heard was played by Joe Willie and/or Stack.
When I met them they were living in a house on Carpenter Street along with Joe Willie's wife, Carrie. The house was small and cluttered, but tidy. A record player stood next to the front wall and as I entered, "Smokestack Lightning" was coming from the small speaker in the front of the machine. "Howlin' Woof", as Carrie Wilkins pronounced it, provided background music that afternoon. Aside from the sparse furnishing, boxes of unknown contents and the old record player, on one wall hung the three pictures I had come to expect seeing in any home I visited in Black Memphis - FDR, JFK and MLK.
The day I arrived, Stack was in the backyard tending to a barbecue. He was cooking catfish. He had made a batter (the recipe for which he would not divulge, even to Carrie), dipping each fillet before placing it on the grill. Once the batter was browned, the fish was basted with a sauce (equally secret) and cooked a bit longer. I have eaten catfish at Gallitoirs in New Orleans, at the First-And-Last-Chance Cafe in Donaldsonville, LA and at Positanno in New York City. Nothing comes close to the magic wrought by Houston Stackhouse.
I had seen a picture of Joe Willie and Stack, taken in the 40's at KFFA. The picture, a famous shot in Blues circles, shows Sonny Boy Williamson blowing harp, down center sits the drummer (the late Sam Carr) with "King Biscuit Boys" hand painted on the kick drum head and a very young Joe Willie Wilkins and Houston Stackhouse, standing center right, holding their guitars. As one can see from the picture, the young Joe Willie was a strikingly handsome man.
Years later, on the road with Joe Willie and the Caravan, the subject of the picture came up. Teasing Joe Willie, I remarked that he used to be a good looking guy - and asked him what happened. Joe smiled. Carrie, sitting across the room, shouted, "Good looking!? Shit, let me tell ya - I had'a pull women two-at-a-time off that motherfucker!"
Joe Willie continued to smile.
[Below is a video of Joe Willie Wilkins and Houston Stackhouse, with Stack doing the vocals.]
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