Willie Kent
b. 24 February 1936, Sunflower, Mississippi, USA. Kent was brought up in Shelby, Mississippi, and was influenced by the blues he heard on the radio. He settled in Chicago in 1952 and was soon able to hear the top blues artists live in the clubs, although he was underage. Kent began working as a singer in 1957 and started to play guitar the following year. He quickly switched to bass and formed his own group around 1959. As a bass player, Kent worked in the '60s with Hip Linkchain, Jimmy Dawkins, and Luther ‘Guitar Junior’ Johnson. In 1975, he shared a live album with Willie James Lyons for the MCM label, and he has subsequently had his intense, powerful vocals and bass playing issued on various labels.