Big show Local bluesman Big Larry Williams guest stars with Blues Gone Awry

What makes local bluesman Big Larry Williams so special?

To start, Williams, in his 60 years of music experience, has toured around the world, met music legends B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy (among others) and -- at nearly 81-years-old -- is releasing a new album with his band The Down Home Blues Band.

Big Larry Williams joined Doug Rees during Tunes at Twilight on Friday, August 31, 2007. (Kit Doyle)

He's also singing with local band Blues Gone Awry on Sunday at Broussard's -- with a broken left arm and some back pain from a slip on the ice last week.

"If I have to crawl to get there, I'll be there," said Williams, a Carbondale, Ill., resident. "One thing I've always said is you're never too sick to go out for your public. All you can do is entertain the best way you can. And Cape is what's happening right now, too. You just don't see as much going in Carbondale."

Williams said this unselfish attitude is just his way, and has been his whole career. He has even asked to be let out of the hospital to go play a show. Les Lindy, harmonica player for Blues Gone Awry, said if people want to see a true legend of the stage, Big Larry is it.

"Anybody that has done it as long as he has with the people he has done it with is a legend," Lindy said. "I mean he is well known around here, Chicago, down South ... and he just has this stage presence that's extraordinary. It shows you something that he's coming down here Sunday. I mean Larry could be on his deathbed and he'd find a way to entertain."

It was Gospel that gave Big Larry his start, learning how to sing as a child in church. Williams said back in those days singing lessons stuck with you.

Martin "Big Larry Williams" Allbritton posed with B.B. King, left, and King's nephew, Walter King. (Submitted photo)

"I was glad Miss Ethel took me under her wing," Williams said. "She was hard on me and I appreciate it. I eventually got to where I was going around singing from church to church."

At age 16, Williams said he got the "bug" to sing the blues, and performed for the first time at Hopper's Club in Paducah, Ky. Eventually, he would travel the world singing with The Mellow Fellows. Williams has also been a drummer throughout his career, but recent medical complications have caused him to put away the drumsticks. Now Big Larry's voice graces the Carbondale-area with The Down Home Blues Band (who will be releasing a new CD Saturday) featuring keyboardist Mel Goode, Ivas John on lead guitar, bassist Larry Woods and Dave Parrish on rhythm guitar.

"It's been a hard life and it's been a wonderful life," Williams said. "And that's what blues is ... it's all about what happens in life."