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Robert Lockwood Jr. (1915-2006)

He Never Retired from Blues Business

Robert Lockwood Jr. was born March 27, 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, a farming hamlet about 25 miles west of Helena. 1915 was remarkable because several other monumental blues artists were born within a 100-mile radius that year; notably Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim, Johnny Shines, and Honeyboy Edwards. They would all meet up in the future. His first musical lessons were on the family pump organ. Robert Lockwood Jr. learned the guitar, at age eleven, from Robert Johnson, the mysterious delta bluesman, who was living with his mother. From Robert Johnson, Robert Lockwood Jr. learned chords, timing, and stage presence. By the age of fifteen, Robert Lockwood Jr. was playing professionally, often with Robert Johnson; sometimes with Johnny Shines or Rice Miller, who would soon be calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson II. They would play fish fries, juke joints, and street corners. Once Robert Johnson played one side of the Sunflower River, while Robert Lockwood Jr. manned the other bank. The people of Clarksville, Mississippi were milling around the bridge; they couldn’t tell which guitarist was Robert Johnson. Robert Lockwood Jr. had learned Robert Johnson’s techniques very well. Robert Johnson’s fast lifestyle caught up with him, passing away in 1937. Robert Lockwood Jr. was 22 but prepared for the future. Robert Lockwood Jr.’s first recordings came in 1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous Bluebird Sessions in Aurora, Illinois. During these sessions, Robert Lockwood Jr. cut four singles under his own name. Later in 1941, Robert Lockwood Jr. was back in Arkansas where he re-united with Sonny Boy Williamson II to host a live radio program broadcast at noon from KFFA in Helena, sponsored by the King Biscuit Flower Company. Several generations of southern bluesman can trace their musical roots to the show. Robert Lockwood Jr. moved around, the usual route was Memphis, St. Louis, to Chicago. By the early 1950’s, he had surfaced in the Windy City, where he became the top session man for Chess Records. Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Eddie Boyd, whom he toured with for six years, you can hear his smooth chords on their recordings. In the late 1960s Robert Lockwood Jr. would gig all around Cleveland. Robert Lockwood Jr.’s solo recording career, exclusive of the 1941 Bluebird Sessions, began in 1970 with Delmark’s Steady Rollin’ Man, backed by old friends Louis Myers, his brother Dave Myers, and Fred Below, collectively known as The Aces. In 1972, Robert Lockwood Jr. hooked up with famed musicologist, Pete Lowry to record Contrasts, the first of two for Trix Records. Many recordings and awards followed. Robert Lockwood Jr. has amassed so many awards that it is not possible to list all of them. Robert Lockwood Jr. died of respiratory failure on November 21, 2006, at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 91.

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