Big Daddy Wilson was born more than 50 years ago in a small town called Edenton, North Carolina. The population of Edenton counts less than 6000, 55% African Americans, 25% below the poverty line. “We were very poor but I had a very beautiful childhood“, Wilson remembers. “Me and my sisters were raised by Mom and Grandma. We lived a simple life, we went to church every Sunday, school on weekdays. I also worked back then on the tobacco plantation and in the cotton fields, I was a real country boy.“ Wilson sang in church but he never thought about going on stage. “I was extremely shy.“

And then Wilson heard the blues for the first time. Back in Edenton he had listened to music only in church and from the local, country radio station. But now he went for the first time to a real blues concert. “I met the blues here in Germany. I didn’t know what the blues was before“ Big Daddy Wilson says. “It was here that I found a part of me that was missing for so long in my life.“ It did not take long and the shy guy who had written some poems started looking for melodies. He went on stage, jammed all over the German blues scene and made an impression with his warm and soulful voice...“

Early in 2000, the Canadian blues expert Johnny V recorded an album in Riga together with the Latvian Blues Band, and that was followed by a major concert tour of Canada that stretched from Toronto all the way to Calgary. This is seen as the beginning of the band’s career.

The Latvian Blues Band has appeared in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Croatia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Russia, Belarus, the United States, Canada, Egypt and many places more. It has taken part in major European blues festivals such as Euro Jazz in Athens, Sierre Blues in Switzerland, Narcao Blues in Sardinia, and countless other ones.