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Pork Chop Willie features Bill Hammer on lead guitar and vocals and Melissa Tong on fiddle and keys, joined by outstanding rhythm players from both Mississippi and New York. Bill (Pork Chop Willie) had been playing Chicago-style blues in and around New York City for more than ten years with his band, The Maxwell Street Roosters, when one day he heard Jimbo Mathus and Eric Deaton playing the deeply emotional blues from the North Mississippi Hill Country. Bill was completely taken by the power of this style of blues. For two years, he absorbed all he could about the music of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and others, while studying under Kenny Brown and Jimbo Mathus.
In early 2008, Bill approached Melissa Tong, an incredibly talented violin/fiddle player, about starting a new band. Melissa can do it all—and does. From classical to bluegrass, from indie-rock to blues, Melissa is one of the most sought-after musicians in New York City (it was at a juke joint on the back streets of Clarksdale, Mississippi, though, after a tussle over a 24 oz. can of Budweiser, that Melissa earned her nickname, Railroad Nails). Bill and Melissa formed Pork Chop Willie to focus on the music of the North Mississippi Hill Country. Presenting a number of original songs and reinterpreting Hill Country classics, Pork Chop Willie forges a unique sound, merging the powerful rhythms of the Hill Country with the moving sounds of Melissa's fiddle. Their music has been described as "deeply emotional, often raucous, always hip-shakin'."
Pork Chop Willie is drawing a following both at home in New York and in Mississippi, where the band recently played at Po' Monkey's Lounge in Merigold, Rooster's House of Blues in Oxford, and at the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale. Pork Chop Willie was the closing act for New York’s Washington Square Music Festival in June 2008. In addition to other appearances in the greater New York area, Pork Chop Willie has a regular gig at Banjo Jim’s in New York City's East Village on the first Friday of every month.
In New York, Bill and Melissa play with drummer David Sokol and bassist Dave Wnorowski. Grammy nominee Paul Olsen of Scrapomatic and the great Tony Cedras (longtime Paul Simon collaborator among many, many others) have sat in with Pork Chop Willie. When down in Mississippi, though, Pork Chop and Railroad Nails return to the source, with Kinney Kimbrough on drums and Eric Deaton on bass. Kinney and Eric literally grew up playing this music and are continuing the Hill Country legacy.
Pork Chop Willie's debut album is almost complete. Recorded at Jimbo Mathus’ studio in Como, Mississippi with Kenny Brown, Duwayne Burnside, Kinney Kimbrough, Eric Deaton, Olga and Jimbo, it includes many of Bill’s original songs and some Hill Country classics, some as reworked by Bill and Melissa, some as arranged by the great Kenny Brown, and some as they were spontaneously created during the live sessions. The record is faithful to the emotional honesty of the Hill Country tradition. Nothing is more powerful than the Hill Country sound played by the musicians who grew up with the music in their souls. Pork Chop Willie encourages you to discover for yourself the music of these incredible musicians.
Pictures of Pork Chop Willie's All-Star Revue and Blues Band
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