To inquire about booking the band or Sweet Willie Tea, please call 810-762-5735

Sweet Willie and the Tea Bones is a touring band featuring Willie on vocals, guitar, harmonica, and keyboards. The group can perform different types of shows for different venues. The bands line-up varies from Willie's solo acoustic performances to engagements as a dou, trio, or a four piece combo with guitars, bass, drums and piano/organ.

Sweet Willie Tea is Bill Toll on vocals, guitar, harmonica and percussion. When he's not performing with his group "The Tea Bones", Sweet Willie works as a street performer and solo artist performing traditional blues and original songs as a "one-man-band". Willie's shows feature historical facts about the instruments he uses; including turn-of-the-century cigar box guitars, dobros, diddley bows, and a variety of other acoustic guitars.

We can perform an "educational" blues review show featuring selections performed in chronological order and accompanied with facts and trivia about the artists and their material, beginning with pieces performed on vintage instruments (Dobros & acoustic guitars) starting with the earliest 1936 Delta Blues recordings of Robert Johnson, classics by Sonny Boy Williamson, Rufus Thomas, Tin Pan singers like Fats Waller, the transitional electric Chicago Blues of Muddy Waters and Albert King, country blues from the likes of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, continuing through the Memphis sounds of B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and ending with the blues derivative sounds of artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and contemporary Detroit style blues artists like Larry McCray (to list only a few).

We also perform a complete show featuring a variety of blues/rock songs and our own material without the educational component for traditional show/club venues featuring music from the blues of B.B.King to classic rock standards by Jimi Hendrix and everything in-between.

Willie has an extensive background in Second City style improv theatre as both a director and performer and brings lots of audience participation, good humor and energy to engagements.

We have 30 min., 45 min, 1 hour and 2 hour sets as well as being able to provide an entire evening's entertainment in a club or special occasion setting.
The band's shows are "scalable" for any size venue. We have opened for national acts as well as worked in the smallest clubs. We can also provide our own complete sound and light support and technicians (if needed) for venues up to approx. 1,000 persons indoors or outdoors or provide only back line gear and work with your "front of house" crew.

if you need to contact the band directly call:
1-810-762-5735
...ask for Willie. Or you can email me:
willie@sweetwillietea.com
 

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