Lefty Dizz Chicago’s Left-Handed Blues Master Of The Stratocaster
Published November, 2024 Issue Washington Blues Society Bluesletter
Incomparable. Unparalleled. Extraordinary. A Wild Man of the Blues. Sensational. Bawdy. Outright outrageous. Each of these adjectives describe Walter Williams, who was born in 1937 in Osceola, Arkansas. When Walter was growing up, this town had less than 300 souls nestled along the Mississippi River within the Arkansas Delta. Growing up, he dreamed of playing the guitar.
Williams began playing the guitar while he served in the US Air Force. His approach was unique, as most guitarists go, as he played the guitar left handed, but he didn’t re-string his Fender Stratocaster guitar to play it as it was made, he just flipped it over and played from the low-E to the high-E, upside down (opposite of standard guitar string set up on the fretboard). Williams went on to earn a degree in economics at Southern Illinois University, but the Blues world is fortunate that he focused on music rather than “the dismal science.”
After his discharge, he first moved to Detroit, and then relocated to Chicago. Shortly after he arrived, he was recognized as a first-call bluesman and played regularly at many of the legendary Chicago Blues venues, such as the Checkerboard Lounge, B.L.U.E.S., B.L.U.E.S., Etc., Theresa’s Lounge, The Forestville Lounge, The Chicago Blues Festival, Rosa’s Lounge, and The Kingston Mines. From 1964-71, he played with Junior Wells on national and world tours, and in 1971, Hound Dog Taylor invited him to be a HouseRocker, and gave Walter the moniker, “Lefty Dizz.”
Lefty performed, toured and recorded with many of America’s other Blues Royalty, too, including J.B Lenoir, Lacy Gibson, Earl Hooker, Sonny Thompson, Magic Slim, John Primer, Louisiana Red, Junior Cannady, Carlos Johnson, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Shaw, and Jimmy Dawkins. After Taylor’s death in 1975, Lefty formed his own band, ‘Lefty Dizz and Shock Treatment’.
I first met Lefty when he, along with drummer Casey Jones, harmonica player Jody Noa, and The Chicago Horns (Bill McFarland on trombone, Sonny ‘Steel’ Seals on saxophone, and Jerry Wilson on trumpet) stormed through the front door of a rock club in Burbank, IL, where I was producing a sold-out rock and roll show with one the Chicago area’s top rock dogs.
Well, Lefty and Company took over the stage during the band’s second set, and it turned out to be my first Sopro Music’s Thanksgiving Chicago All Star Blues Revue Concert. These events have continued for 38 years and still going strong.
I consider this show when Lefty Dizz and Company delightfully crashed my party the beginning of my career promoting Blues music.
Lefty became an annual performer on my Blues Revue Concerts and was always one of the highlighted performers that audiences raved about every time he took command of the stage and entertained everyone time after time with dazzling showmanship and brilliant guitar performances, leaving audiences howling for more! leaving audiences howling for more!
Although I had met Lefty at that first show in Burbank, IL, my first real encounter with Lefty was a few months later.
A friend of mine was on the entertainment committee at Lewis College in Joliet, IL, and asked if I could put together a Blues concert with a major league Chicago Blues performer for the student body in the college’s auditorium.
I immediately knew that Lefty would fit the bill, so I tracked him down and contracted him to perform. Lefty said he was doing some shows with the legendary Corky Siegel, co-leader of the Siegel-Schwall Band. He said he’d like to have Corky open with a solo harmonica performance and then Corky would also perform with Lefty during selected segments of his show. Of course, this was a no-brainer! I agreed, and the show was a go – right from the git-go.
When Lefty and Corky arrived, I escorted them to the dressing room. I gave Lefty a pint of Wild Turkey whiskey that he requested when we were cutting the deal. He graciously and promptly accepted, cracked the bottle open, and slugged down a big swig. He then asked me about his money and said that he expected me to pay him immediately after his performance, and that if I tried to short him he would cut me off at the knees and make me shorter.
Lefty said this pretty much in jest, but Lefty was well-known as a streetwise, no-nonsense man, nobody to mess with. It was rumored that Lefty carried a straight razor and that he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
So I then took an envelope out of my suit pocket and hand it to Lefty.
“Here’s your dough,” I said. “I’m paying you before you perform in cold, hard cash.”
I always did that with any performers that I worked with and promoted. Lefty looked at Corky, looked at me with a gimlet eye and crooked grin, and said with his unique southern drawl, “Well, I gotta say, young Turk, you’re a right G, and anytime or anywhere you’d like for me to perform, ya’ got me, my young brother.”
This was the beginning of a decades’ long Blues music partnership, and much more importantly, a beautiful friendship.
When Lefty created the ‘Shock Treatment Band,’ he hired some of the best performers in the Blues business in Chicago.
First, he hired guitarist, producer and band director Kevin Donnelly, and then a thundering engine room of bassist Silvia Embry and drummer Woody Williams (Lefty’s brother). Each sang both lead and background vocals to complement Lefty, and Keven wrote many of the songs (as well as produced) The Soul of Lefty Dizz on Catwalk records.
One of Lefty’s most unique performances was at the Muddy Waters Band show at the Checkerboard Lounge after the Rolling Stones’ Chicago Stadium show in 1981. Muddy invited the Stones to the bandstand, and Lefty stepped on stage with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Nick Charles, John Primer, ‘Killer’ Ray Allison, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Ian Stewart.
If Muddy Waters and his band didn’t blow the roof off the joint, Lefty Dizz and the ensemble blew it into the cosmos with a show that would go down in Blues history. And it did.
The event was captured by Eagle Vision on the Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981 DVD and charted in the top five in many music charts in six countries across the globe.
I experienced quite a memorable time with Lefty when one day he called me and asked me if I would pick him up at his crib the following night and accompany him to the Park West on Chicago’s North Side where ‘The Master of the Telecaster,’ Albert Collings was performing. We drove to the Park West, and when Lefty and I entered the lobby, Lefty told the woman at the ticket window that he was on the guest list.
She checked the guest list and told Lefty his name was not on the list. Chagrined by the woman’s dismissal, Lefty told her who he was and demanded that she send someone to the dressing room and straighten this out with Albert.
Before the woman could respond, a security guard recognized Lefty and told the woman who he was, that Lefty and Albert were old time pals, and did not doubt that Albert would add Lefty to the list. He then escorted Lefty and me to Albert’s dressing room.
We headed upstairs, and Lefty knocked on Albert’s dressing room door.
“Who the hell is knocking on my door? Just open the damn door and come on in,” a voice bellowed from the dressing room.
Lefty opened the door, and Albert Collins was sitting in front of the dressing room table tuning his guitar. Albert looked up at Lefty with a big grin.
“Why in all Hell’s tarnation are you knocking on my door, ya’ ol’ vagabond?” yelled Albert. “You don’t ever have to knock on my door, you are my brother and life-long friend, and you can always walk right in anytime, anyplace.”
Albert stood up and embraced Lefty like the life-long friends and brothers that they were.
Lefty introduced me to Albert, and he welcomed me with a gracious handshake and greeted me kindly. I was shocked and awed in the presence of the Blues giant. Meeting Albert Collins in person was a moment I’ll cherish forever (especially since my friend Lefty Dizz made it happen).
When showtime arrived, Albert invited Lefty and me to accompany him, his band mates, and his entourage to the stage. He directed Lefty, me, and the entourage to a roped-off spot right next to the stage. Moments later, with Albert and his band on stage, Albert exploded into his first song with wild abandon, and the sold out show’s crowd went absolutely bananas, and Albert proceeded to perform one the greatest Blues concerts I’ve ever experienced.
Lefty’s guitar wizardry, dynamic virtuoso, and brilliance, and on-and-off stage antics with his head and shoulder-shaking routines and lively banter, became a staple of unsurpassed proportions that left indelible marks on the hearts and in the souls of every Blues fan that saw him perform live.
Lefty was a consummate Blues showman. Always a sharp dressed man, dressed to the nines in a custom made white or sharkskin gray suit, colorful silk shirts and ties, and topped off with his trademark wide-brimmed hats. Lefty prowled the stage like a sabre toothed Bengal tiger, and always made eye contact with as many fans as possible.
One of Lefty’s signature routines during his live shows was a real crowd pleaser. He’d grasp his guitar with one hand against the fretboard, and then pretend to drop his guitar, only to catch it a few frets at a time, play hammer-ons with his fingers on one hand, then drop it further, play more hammer-ons in the middle of the fretboard, and a few more times doing likewise with his other hand, until he reached to top of the fretboard. This was an amazing feat of dexterity, especially when he did this with perfect pitch and intonations of each note he played.
Another routine focused on Lefty’s ability to multitask. He would leave the stage, saunter through the crowd like a drunken sailor, and drag his Stratocaster behind him with one hand and snap it up and down as he ripped off single notes against the fretboard. At the same time, he told bawdy jokes and stories and sang perfectly phrased lyrics that mesmerized his die-hard fans while also “giving them the dozens” time and time again.
Regarding the term “giving them the dozens,” it deserves a little clarification. This was one of the many Blues terms and traditions I learned from Lefty. I also appreciate the lessons I have learned from other legacy Blues artists like Casey Jones and Robert Stroger, whom I’ve previously profiled in the pages of this magazine. These lessons continue to inform and enhance my knowledge of Blues music, culture, and history.
“Giving them the dozens” was, and still is, a ritual put-down-game historically played-out by Blacks of both sexes, being either “Clean Dozens” or “Dirty Dozens” (“Dirty Dozens” have to do with sexual taunts of verbal or physical insults that neither Polly O’Keary or Eric Steiner will print in the Bluesletter).
With the sad passing of Lefty Dizz on September 7, 1993, the Blues world lost one of its most entertaining and accomplished Bluesmen that ever played the guitar or graced a Blues show stage. Lefty left a legacy of recordings that will be forever remembered by all that knew him and everyone that ever witnessed, shared, and enjoyed Lefty’s live performances.
Lefty Dizz, I miss you my friend and Blues brother.
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