History lesson of the World's Greatest Blues Jam.
Exerpts from a letter by Shannon Williford, now living in Nashville, to The Baton Rouge Blues Society

I started the Thursday Night Jam at Phil Brady's in Baton Rouge and ran it for nine
years. I Can't believe I've been gone ten years. Our first few months were at Byronz,
which was a place down in Catfish Town. Don Gilman was the bartender. He's a corporate
entertainment producer in New York City now. Johnny Rosetti took over the jam when I
left. Glad to hear he's still doing it now and then. Jim George was the drummer. Joe
Hunter was the bass. He's now in Nashville and I play with him every Sunday night if
you're up this way. I played harp. (Badly) I'm not sure who the guitar was. Jim George
may remember. I wanna say it was Troy Turner, but I'm not sure. Maybe Larry Garner.
The second week the late great Jim Honeycutt took over for us on bass. Joe said
"I don't wanna raise up another drummer" and quit. Jim G. was the drummer because he
agreed to bring out drums for nothing. He wanted to learn how to play. I think Joe and I
made twenty bucks each. That was good money to Joe, who had been working as Tabby's
house bassman for a while, working for "Tabby dolluhs." Joe stayed mad at me for most
of my nine years because the only time he worked the jam was when Big Jim(Honeycutt)
couldn't make it. He lobbied me hard when he was working the jam the several months
Jim H. was in jail. He maintained that a guy should lose the job if he goes to the
slammer. I told him that I had pleaded with Honeycutt and Jim George to do the jam by
promising that if they'd hang on with me and we ever got to where we made money, they'd
have the gig as long as they wanted. They did, too. At Byronz, we had Darnell Neal's
first non-Neal gig. He was great on bass even then. I think he was sixteen. We had Chris
Thomas (before he was a King) come around some. And Terry Dockery, a harp guy who, along
with Oscar Davis and Raful, was my favorite in town. They all inspired me. Dockery played
on Garner's first two famous rekkids. Dockery still plays with Garner now and then. He's
a psychologist in Atlanta. When Byronz and Catfish Town closed, I talked Richard Haywood,
owner of Phil Brady's, into letting us give it a go there. It turned out to be the perfect
place with the perfect crowd. Michael Wolfe (now in, Wilmington,NC as the resident swamp
bluesman), Two Tone Malone (now playing in Nashville), and others played the jam at Brady's.
Bill Humphreys came to town and played bass. I called him "Shreveport Bill" because he had
moved from there. Bill is now in NOLA.  Walking Dr. Bill Boelins was one of the number one
fans. And Grit was there. He started beating on my frottior so often that we finally just
got him one of his own - for his birthday, I think... Coyote , Bike shop dude, was a great
fan. Billy C. (Bill Carlson) came to town as a 22 year old fresh from the University of
Kansas  He played rockabilly guitar and did some gigs while working as an engineer at Exon.
I think he got tired of me calling him "The  Blues' representative from Big Oil." Billy is
now also in Nashville. He has his own home inspection biz here. Scott Achord was with a road
band from B.R. called Contraband. He'd come by many Thursdays. He Later played in  kickin'
blues act with Rosetti and Jim George called See Jane Run. He moved to Nashville the
year before I did and has been playing with me in my act, Delicious Blues Stew, ever since I
got here. Scott is known as "Patio Daddio" here. (I'm often called "Bayou," short for "Shan
de Bayou,"my backdoor Cajun man character." I figure if it's good enough for Sonny Landreth...
(Scott IS Patio Daddio, whereas Bayou is just my evil alter-ego.) Others who came and jammed
Tom Barrow, rockin' drummer, and Big Lisa, who called herself MZ Jones, but everybody else
called her Big Lisa. Still never heard a more singin woman than Lisa.  Larry Garner was
the spirit of the jam for my years. He was working at the Chemical plant and playing the
blues for anybody who'd have him. Larry played a lot of tunes that are still his standards
today at the jam. There was Little Jessie. who was a great drummer and Ronnie "gimme a dolluh".
Big Luther came around a good bit the last few years I was there and always sent the jam
into overdrive. Sometimes Leon Medica and Dave Peters from LaRoux would come. Dave played
with Gatemouth for many years) Leon is in Nashville now. We ate Crawfish with Scott Achord
recently, then we played at Opryland Hotel... Pineapple (Paul Dutsch) started as my student,
coming around at age 17 to the jam, then wound up doing real well playing country with the
David Morgan Band. Paul started out wanting to be Joe Hunter. Whenever Kenny Neal was in
town, he'd come out and turn it on. Carol Daniels showed up too. We've done a song about
her on a Delicious Blues Stew record. Henry Gray came in and played. After 4 or 5 years
and some traveling around to hear other jams, I decided that our Phil Brady's jam was
easily the greatest and coolest jam I'd ever seen. I started asking other folks from all
over who had come to our jam and they agreed. I modestly determined that it was, indeed, the
World's Greatest Blues Jam, and started calling it that. Twerpie Haywood, Richard's beloved
wife, would help us do an anniversary party for the jam each year. She put that on a t-shirt.
I wish I still had mine. It probably wouldn't fit...Others were Chuck Mitchell, Roy Stewart
Derby Kleinpeter, Patrick Williams, B.B.Bruce, Holgar, Paul the drummer, Kenny Acosta, Speedy.,
Denise, Jimmy, Shedric (the sax man who became a  mighty fine bass player), The blues flute
man, Gary Guidry (now in Nashville playing gospel...), Getty (now in Seattle, still working
his body like he was 21, from what I hear, and The Brits who would "discover" Baton Rouge and
make records. So many great players came through. I loved it. I miss it to this day.