Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982), billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over four decades, he recorded such songs as "Baby Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Peach Orchard Mama" for a variety of record labels, including Bluebird, Delmark, Okeh, Prestige and Vocalion. Williams was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on October 4, 1992.

Blues historian Barry Lee Pearson (Sounds Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story, Virginia Piedmont Blues) attempted to document the gritty intensity of the Williams persona in this description:

From busking to Bluebird

Born in Crawford, Mississippi, Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue and recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for the Okeh label.

Joe Williams (English footballer)

Joseph Williams (born 1873 - unknown) was an English footballer. His regular position was as a forward. He was born in Crewe, Cheshire. He played for Manchester United and Macclesfield Town.

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Joe Williams (film critic)

Joseph L. Williams (November 9, 1958 – July 26, 2015) was the film critic for the daily St. Louis Post-Dispatch (#29 among U.S. newspapers) and the Web site STLtoday.com in St. Louis, Missouri. He was also the author of the books Entertainment on the Net,Hollywood Myths and The Grassy Knoll Report Williams had been a staff writer for the newspaper since 1996. From 2003 to 2006, he was the on-camera movie reviewer for St. Louis TV station KMOV, He was a frequent guest on radio and television broadcasts in the region.

Biography

Williams was born on November 9, 1958. He attended public schools in St. Louis County, graduating in 1976 from Parkway West High School. He was a 1982 graduate of the University of Southern California, where his mentor was the novelist T.C. Boyle. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the school. Williams received his master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 1987.

From 1988 to 1990, Williams was a staff writer for the music industry trade magazine Cashbox in Los Angeles, California. He is credited with being the first national critic to write about the band The Posies, who were signed to Geffen Records after Williams' review of the album Failure.

Cyclone Joe Williams

Joseph Williams (April 6, 1886 – February 25, 1951), nicknamed "Cyclone Joe" or "Smokey Joe", was an American right-handed pitcher in the Negro leagues. He is widely recognized as one of the game's greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

Early life

Williams was born in Seguin, Texas; one of his parents was African American and the other was a Comanche Indian. He grew up to become an outstanding baseball pitcher, but as his path to the major leagues was barred by the color line, Williams spent his entire 27-year career (1905–32) pitching in the Negro leagues, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Cyclone / Smokey

During Williams' years in New York, he acquired the nickname "Cyclone Joe", or simply "Cyclone", frequently being listed in box scores solely by that name. After joining the Homestead Grays in the late 1920s, his nickname became "Smokey Joe", and the older "Cyclone" appellation was rarely used after that.

Big Joe (reggae)

Big Joe (born Joseph Spalding; 1955) is a Jamaican reggae deejay and record producer, who recorded extensively in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Biography

Spalding was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1955, and began his recording career in the early 1970s working with producer Harry Mudie. He then worked with producer Winston Edwards and had a hit single with "Selassie Skank". He moved on to record for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and set up his own Small Axe Hi Fi sound system and a record label. In the 2000s Spalding had success as a hip hop producer and recording engineer.

Discography

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Big Joe (mascot)

Big Joe (French: Grand Jos) is the mascot of the Ottawa Redblacks, a Canadian Football League team. The mascot was introduced in February 2014, prior to the 2014 CFL season. The Redblacks launched a contest to provide a name to the mascot.

When originally named Big Joe Mufferaw, Redblacks owner Jeff Hunt stated, "We heard that fans loved the look of our mascot and hundreds said he had to be Big Joe Mufferaw. We like that name too because it reminds us of our city's past and fits so well into the branding of our football team." The name was a reference to French Canadian folk hero, Big Joe Mufferaw, who is based on real-life Joseph Montferrand (French: Jos Montferrand), who is often credited as a lumberjack from the Ottawa Valley. However, the name caused controversy and divided opinions, as some considered it offensive to Montferrand's surname. Criticisms of the name arose, as some fans claimed the "Mufferaw" took away from the "Frenchness" of Montferrand, and alienated French-Canadians. Due to the controversy, "Mufferaw" was dropped from the mascot's name. The name change was praised, and was seen as both a possible way of building the team's fanbase, as well as a way of discussing French-Canadian history.

Big Joe 1

Big Joe 1 (Atlas 10-D) launched an unmanned boilerplate Mercury capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 9, 1959. The objective of the Big Joe program was to test the Mercury spacecraft ablating heat shield. It was also the first launch of a spacecraft in Project Mercury.

Late on the night of September 8-9, Atlas 10D's engines roared to life on LC-14 and drove the Mercury capsule into the black sky. Everything performed perfectly until around the two-minute mark when telemetry readouts indicated that the booster section had failed to stage. The added dead weight of the engines meant that the Atlas could not attain its intended altitude and velocity, so that the sustainer engine used up its propellants and cut off 14 seconds early. Thanks to the premature SECO (Sustainer Engine Cutoff), the explosive bolts holding the capsule to the Atlas did not fire and it remained attached to its spent booster. Ground crews had to repeatedly fire the RCS (Reaction Control System) thrusters to tear the capsule free and in doing so exhausted the propellant supply. Navy recovery crews hurried to locate the capsule following splashdown and after a few hours, did so. The boilerplate Mercury was found to have survived the mission in good condition and verified the ablative heat shield. Plans for a beryllium heat shield in the event the ablative one did not work were scrapped.