Monday, January 19, 2009

Happy Birthday To Robert Wilkins

January is also the birth month of Robert Wilkins, he was born on th 16th of January in 1896, and he passed away, on May 26, 1987. He was a seminal blues guitarist and vocalist, of African American and Cherokee descent.

According to Wikipedia;

Wilkins was born in Hernando, Mississippi, 21 miles from Memphis. He worked in Memphis during the 1920s at the same time as Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), and Son House. He also organized a jug band to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue. Though never attaining success comparable to the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station. Like Sleepy John Estes (and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers) he recorded alone or with a single accompanist. He sometimes performed as Tim Wilkins or as Tim Oliver (his stepfather's name).


The Guitar of Robert Wilkins


1 comment:

jadedj said...

Fitz, I love this blog not only because I love the Blues, but because you are such a wealth of information I would not otherwise have. Thanks once again.