About this item
The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the Black community's class tensions. Williams caroused with Paul Robeson, recorded the likes of Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and lined up against Chicago Bears player-coach George Halas. Though resented by the artists he exploited, Williams combined a rock-solid instinct for what would sell with an ear for music that put him at the forefront of finding, recording, and blending blues and jazz. Murphy charts Williams's wide-ranging accomplishments while providing portraits of the cutthroat recording industry and the possibilities, however constrained, of Black life in the 1920s and 1930s.
About the Author
Clifford R. Murphy was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey in 1972, and was raised in seacoast New Hampshire. An avid music fan and a self-taught musician, Cliff pursued a career as a rock musician after graduating from Gettysburg College in 1994. With the independent alternative country rock band Say ZuZu, Cliff toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe, releasing ten full-length albums. Growing discouraged with the realities of the music industry, Say ZuZu disbanded in 2003. Following the band's breakup, Cliff embarked on studies in Ethnomusicology at Brown University, where he received his MA in 2005 and his PhD in 2008. During his studies at Brown, Cliff conducted fieldwork in New England with country musicians, culminating in his first book, Yankee Twang: Country and Western Music in New England (2014) . Since 2008, Cliff has worked as a folklorist and is the Director of Maryland Traditions, the state folklife program at the Maryland State Arts Council. He is a regular guest co-producer of "The Signal" on WYPR-FM, is a contributing journalist to the online newspaper The Conversation, and is an adjunct lecturer in American Studies at University of Maryland Baltimore County. Cliff is also the co-author - with folklorists Henry Glassie and Douglas Dowling Peach - of Ola Belle Reed and Southern Mountain Music on the Mason-Dixon Line (2015) . He lives with his family in Baltimore, Maryland.
