Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist.

He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many East Coast, Piedmont blues players.

He sang in a smooth and often laid-back tenor which differed greatly from the harsher voices of many Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton.

In his recordings of "Lay Some Flowers on My Grave", "Lord, Send Me an Angel" and "Statesboro Blues", he pronounces his surname MacTell with the stress on the first syllable.

He learned to play the guitar in his early teens from his mother and from relatives and neighbors in Statesboro where his family had moved.

[3] Most sources give the date of his birth as 1898 but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest 1903 on the basis of his entry in the 1910 census.

[3][1] His family was rich in music; both of his parents and an uncle played the guitar and he and bluesman and gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey were cousins.

Like Lead Belly, another songster who began his career on the streets, McTell favored the twelve-string guitar whose greater volume made it suitable for outdoor playing.

The Lomaxes also elicited from him traditional songs (such as "The Boll Weevil" and "John Henry") and spirituals (such as "Amazing Grace"),[8] which were not part of his usual repertoire.

He continued to perform around Atlanta but his career was cut short by ill health, mostly due to diabetes and alcoholism.

His most famous song, "Statesboro Blues" was adapted by Taj Mahal with Jesse Ed Davis on slide guitar, then covered and frequently performed by the Allman Brothers Band.

Dylan also recorded covers of McTell's "Broke Down Engine" and "Delia" on his 1993 album, World Gone Wrong;[note 2] Dylan's song "Po' Boy", on the album Love and Theft (2001), contains the lyric "had to go to Florida dodging them Georgia laws", which comes from McTell's "Kill It Kid".

[18] Another Blind Willie's bar in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood of Atlanta named after McTell that features blues musicians and bands.