Born William Samuel Mctier May 1898 in Thompson Georgia Willie played guitar with a finger picking style mostly on 12 string guitars.
The Allman Bros covered Statesboro Blues a song written by McTell and ranked #9 on the Rolling Stones magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitar Song of All Time.
Willie died August 19 1959, despite his lack of his commercial success he was one of the few blues musicians of his generation who continued to actively play and record during the1940's and 1950's.