Interview with Pork Chop Willie

On any given night of the week, Banjo Jim’s contribution to the boisterous vibe of New York City’s Lower East Side is the hurly-burly magic of truly American music, from Appalachian folk, to bluegrass, to the blues. One of the regular acts at the bar on 9th Street and Avenue C is Pork Chop Willie, a local band that plays an under-recognized brand of the blues from the North Mississippi Hill Country.

Pork Chop Willie is the pairing of Bill “Pork Chop Willie” Hammer on guitar and vocals and Melissa “Railroad Nails” Tong on fiddle. They play in New York with drummer David Sokol and bassist “Dangerous” Dave Wnorowksi. (The rhythm section for their frequent performances in Mississippi is comprised of Kinney Kimbrough on drums and Eric Deaton on bass.)

The blues originated in the Mississippi Delta with its rich soil and large plantations, where slaves and later itinerant black farmers created the blues out of an acoustic blend of work songs, chants, and rhythmic ballads. In the hills to the northeast of the Delta, a pared down style emerged, heavy on rhythm and influenced by a regional fife and drum tradition. The North Hill Country blues gained a wider audience following the release in the 1990s of recordings by masters such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Although it is a sound one does not find often in New York City, Pork Chop Willie brings it to Banjo Jim’s on the first Friday of every month, thanks to Bill Hammer’s passion for the music.

Hammer had already learned to pick a guitar and even play harmonica in the style of Bob Dylan when he came to the blues as a college student exploring the dollar bins at a record store. In his first blues record, a Lightnin’ Hopkins album, he found a visceral mode of expression well suited for a young student in search of definition and an outlet. As Hopkins himself sang, the “blues is a feeling,” and this was true for Bill Hammer from the start.

He came to Manhattan as a young professional and pursued his devotion to music even as he carved out a career in the hard charging realm of the New York City legal community. He found a studio that kept instruments on site and fostered young musicians, including amateurs like Hammer. He learned the electric guitar there and started playing in a Chicago blues band. Somewhere along the way, Hammer picked up the nickname “Pork Chop Willie,” since he wasn’t bold enough to count himself among the blues’ many heavyweight “T-Bones” such as T-Bone Walker.

Article Author: Catherine A. Mulligan

Catherine is a purveyor of hope and believer in little miracles who envisions her life, even in the worst of times, as a buena vida social club, The Flamingo Room.

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