Blues-FM celebrates the music and birth of Robert Lockwood Jr. born March 27, 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas. He was the only person who learned guitar directly from Robert Johnson, who often lived with Lockwood’s mother during Lockwood’s formative years. Although one of the most distinguished musicians of his time, Lockwood never prospered commensurately with his reputation. He was best known as an accompanist to more flamboyant stars, especially Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter Jacobs. Lockwood first made music on his family’s pump organ. He was in his late teens when he learned guitar from Johnson. Soon after, he acquired the nickname Robert Jr. because of his admiration for and emulation of Johnson. At about age seventeen, Lockwood started playing professionally. He performed with Johnson, with Johnson’s partner Johnny Shines, and with the freewheeling Williamson. For decades, Lockwood performed professionally as Robert Jr. Lockwood until he wearied of the attention he received because of the name, as it connoted his being Johnson’s stepson, a fact that he thought overshadowed his own achievements. He made his first recordings in Aurora, Illinois, in 1941, performing as a guitarist on Doc Clayton’s sessions for the RCA Bluebird label. That year, he teamed with Williamson once more, and they started hosting a noonday radio program, sponsored by the Interstate Grocery Company on Helena’s KFFA. King Biscuit Time was the first regularly scheduled live broadcast of country blues. Lockwood moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1950 and performed with the historic group that provided backup for Chess Records stars Muddy Waters and, in particular, Little Walter. Lockwood became a member of the band, the Aces, and played an important role in the development of the Chicago Shuffle, a blues innovation played on electrically amplified instruments that served as a prototype for classic rock and roll. He eventually began to record under his own name. The recordings included “Steady Rolling Man” on the Delmark label and “Does Twelve” on Trix. Some earlier recordings for the Decca, Mercury, and Candid labels are difficult to find. Some of his earliest recordings, many in a style derived from Johnson, are collected on Yazoo’s albums Lonesome Road Blues and Windy City Blues. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989, received the National Heritage Fellowship Award (presented by Hillary Clinton) in 1995, and was inducted into the Delta Blues Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Mississippi, in 1998. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate of music degree from Ohio’s Cleveland State University. He had a street named for him in Cleveland—Robert Lockwood Jr. Way. Lockwood continued to tour nationally and record one album a year until his death in 2006. Listen to the music of Robert Lockwood Jr. on Blues-FM available on iTunes.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:06:00 +0000
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