(5CD)
Details of his life are obscure. According to his own account, he
was born in Houston, Texas, in 1920, although some sources give
his birthplace as Jefferson County, Texas with a date of birth in
1924, and others state it as New Orleans.
He claimed to have undertaken training as a commando, and spent
time in jail around 1950 for burglary, before becoming a musician.
He sang, played guitar, and reportedly also played drums. He is
believed to have first recorded in Houston, for the Sittin' In
With record label started by Bob Shad. His recording of "Tend To
Your Business" became a hit in 1951, and stayed on the R&B
chart for 14 weeks. He followed it up with "Junco Partner
(Worthless Man)" in 1952, recorded by Shad in Atlanta, Georgia.
According to musician Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), Wayne's version
made the song popular, although it was already widely known among
musicians in New Orleans and elsewhere, as: "the anthem of the
dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang
in Angola, the state prison farm, and the rhythm was even known as
the 'jailbird beat'." In all, he recorded five singles for the
Sittin' In With label, the first three credited to James Waynes,
with a final "s".
Wayne then recorded with Lee Allen and other musicians for
Imperial Records in New Orleans, before moving to the Aladdin
label in Los Angeles, and then Old Town Records. He returned to
Imperial in 1955, when he began to record as Wee Willie Wayne. One
of his recordings there was "Travelin' Mood", which became another
R&B standard recorded by Dr. John and others; the B-side was
"I Remember", another classic recording. He also recorded for the
Peacock and Angle Tone labels, before returning again in 1961 to
Imperial where he recorded an updated version of "Tend To Your
Business", as part of an album, Travelin' Mood, mostly made up of
earlier recordings.
He did not record after 1961. In February 1967, he was arrested
after setting fire to a motel in South Central Los Angeles
following an argument with its manager, and was charged on three
felony counts. He was found to have had a history of alcoholism,
and to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, and was committed
to a mental health institution. His claims of having been a
successful musician were initially discounted by the authorities.
He spent several years in the Atascadero State Mental Hospital in
the early 1970s, before being released.
In 1975, he was reportedly living in Los Angeles. According to
blues researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, he died in Los
Angeles in 1978 and was buried at Santa Fe Springs.
A compilation LP, Travelin' From Texas To New Orleans, was issued
by Sundown Records in 1982. A CD compilation of the same title was
issued in 2002, and a CD of his 1950-1955 recordings was issued by
Jasmine Records in 2019. (Wikipedia)
