My comments: Richard ‘Buddah’ Smith, Bassist
I'd first like to give my Condolences and a prayer to Mrs. Mary Lockwood and the Lockwood family.
Robert Lockwood, Jr. (Delta Blues Man) my good friend and fellow musician was an outstanding
person and a great musician who gladly shared his long life’s musical experiences with all he came in
contact with, I truly learned a lot from Robert. I was honored and blessed to meet and be invited to be
a part of Mr. Lockwood’s All Stars during the winter of 1996, one morning Wallace Coleman (Harp
Player & vocalist) and Maurice Reedus, EL (Tenor Saxophonist & vocalist), gave me a call about
10:30AM at my place of employment and asked if I'd be interested in sitting-in in Gean Swartz place
at a recording session (“I Got To Find Me A Woman” which was later nominated for a Grammy) that was
already in progress at the Suma Recording Studio located in Painesville Ohio and I accepted. That
began a long friendship and road musician relationship with Mr. Lockwood and the All Star band,
thank you. We're all going to miss you and we all love you very much Robert, so until we meet again
on the other side; GOD bless.
Robert Lockwood Jr., 91, Bluesman, Dies
By JON PARELES
Published: November 25, 2006
Robert Lockwood Jr., the Mississippi Delta bluesman who was taught by Robert Johnson and became a mentor
to generations of blues musicians, died on Tuesday in Cleveland, where he lived. He was 91.
The cause was respiratory failure, said his wife, Mary Smith Lockwood. Mr. Lockwood had been hospitalized
since suffering a brain aneurysm on Nov. 3. Mr. Lockwood considered himself Johnson’s stepson, since
Johnson had a decade-long romance with his mother. For long stretches of his career, he called himself Robert
Jr. Lockwood to acknowledge Johnson’s influence.
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Mr. Lockwood carried the music of the Mississippi Delta to other emerging blues scenes. He performed on the
pioneering blues radio show “King Biscuit Time.” He gave B. B. King guitar lessons. He became a studio
musician at Chess Records and played on sessions that defined electric Chicago blues and went on to shape rock
’n’ roll. Although he could play in the old Delta style, he embraced blues from across the United States and
drew strongly on the harmonies and phrasing of jazz.
“I never did want to sound like anybody else,” he said in a 2001 interview with the Big Road Blues Web site.
“What I play sounds easy, but you just try it. It’s not easy.”
Mr. Lockwood was born on March 27, 1915, in Turkey Scratch, Ark. He learned to play the family pump organ
and hoped to become a pianist. But when he was a teenager, Robert Johnson moved in with his mother (who
was separated from Robert Lockwood Sr.). Once Mr. Lockwood heard Johnson’s music, he turned to guitar.
Other bluesmen worked in guitar duos, but “Robert came along and he was backing himself up without anybody
helping him, and sounding good,” Mr. Lockwood recounted in Robert Palmer’s 1981 book, “Deep Blues.”
Johnson was secretive about his technique, but he instructed Robert Jr. in his songs and his guitar style. “Robert
wouldn’t show me stuff but once or twice,” Mr. Lockwood said, “but when he’d come back I’d be playing it.”
When Johnson was killed in 1938, Mr. Lockwood was so shaken that he didn’t perform for a year. “Everything
I played would remind me of Robert, and whenever I tried to play I would just come down in tears,” he said.
Mr. Lockwood often insisted that he improved on what he learned from Johnson. “On a lot of things, you know,
Robert kind of messed the time around, and I played perfect time,” he said.
In 1940, Mr. Lockwood traveled to Chicago, and in 1941 he made his first recordings in nearby Aurora, Ill. But
that year he returned to the Delta, where he and Rice Miller (calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson)
inaugurated a daily blues radio show, “King Biscuit Time,” on KFFA in Helena, Ark. It made them stars across
the South.
Growing up in Mississippi, a young B. B. King heard Mr. Lockwood on the radio and went to him for guitar
lessons, and Mr. Lockwood worked with Mr. King in the late 1940s. In interviews, he said that while Mr. King
was already a skilled guitarist, his timing was bad.
Mr. Lockwood settled in Chicago in the early 1950s and became a mainstay of the studio bands at Chess
Records and other labels. Although he recorded a few singles of his own, he worked primarily as a sideman. He
backed Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Sunnyland Slim and Little Walter, among many others, and was in the
pianist Roosevelt Sykes’s live band. In 1960 he accompanied Muddy Waters’s pianist, Otis Spann, on the duet
album “Otis Spann Is the Blues.” As the 1960s began, Mr. Lockwood moved to Cleveland, where he reigned as
the city’s leading bluesman. He resumed his solo recording career in the 1970s with albums for the Delmark
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and Trix labels, drawing on blues, jump blues and swing styles from across the country. He also recorded live
albums in Japan.
Around 1975, his first wife, Annie Roberts Lockwood, gave him a 12-string guitar, and he made it his main
instrument, switching from the six-string. He is survived by his second wife and nine children.
Mr. Lockwood reunited with an old Delta partner, Johnny Shines, on albums for Rounder Records as the 1980s
began. Their album “Hangin’ On” was named best traditional blues album at the first Blues Music Awards in
1980. Mr. Lockwood’s 2000 album “Delta Crossroads” (Telarc) received the same award. Mr. Lockwood was
inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.
In the ’80s, Mr. Lockwood made albums of Robert Johnson songs, and in the ’90s he started his own label,
Lockwood Records, which released “What’s the Score.” In 1995 he received the National Heritage Fellowship
Award, America’s most prestigious traditional arts award. He toured the worldwide blues circuit.
Until Nov. 1, Mr. Lockwood worked a weekly club gig at Fat Fish Blue in Cleveland. A street in Cleveland’s
night-life area, the Flats, was named for him in 1997. Verve Records released his album “I’ve Got to Find Me a
Woman,” on which B. B. King and others sat in, in 1998. It was nominated for a Grammy Award, as was “Delta
Crossroads.”
“I just do what I’m doin’,” Mr. Lockwood told Living Blues magazine in 1995. “Express my ideas, explore new
ideas.”
Robert Lockwood Jr. Expanded The Spectrum of the Blues
By Terence McArdle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 23, 2006; Page C01
I once asked the great bluesman Robert Lockwood Jr., who died Tuesday at age 91, for guitar lessons. It was
1986. I was 25, and it took all of my youthful gumption to do it. A few minutes earlier, I had just witnessed
Lockwood dismissing a man who requested an interview.
"I've been recording since 1941," he said. "I don't need the publicity."
On that summer day, Lockwood was standing in the hot sun beside an outdoor concert stage at the Prince
George's Equestrian Center; a chain-link fence separated him from his fans. I told Lockwood that I wanted to
learn to fingerpick. I had family in Toledo and could drive out to his home in Cleveland to take lessons. Did he
ever give guitar lessons?
"Sure, I've taught guitar. I taught Louis Myers, Luther Tucker, M.T. Murphy, B.B. King," he said, managing to
give me the polite brushoff and establish his credentials at the same time.
"Tell you what," he said. "You go to a music store and learn classical guitar. Then you can play any type of
music."
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I was dumbstruck. Classical guitar? That suggestion could have come directly from my mother's mouth. It
seemed a world apart from Lockwood's own background, but he always liked to defy expectations.
Among the giants of Delta and Chicago blues, Robert Lockwood Jr. may have been the last of the greats, having
outlived Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers and John Lee Hooker.
He learned at age 11 directly from the itinerant blues singer Robert Johnson, who had become romantically
involved with Lockwood's widowed mother in Helena, Ark. By 15, Lockwood was playing juke joints and fish
fries throughout Mississippi and Arkansas with Johnson.
One legend from those days has him playing a fish fry on one side of the Sunflower River, with Johnson on the
other bank. The audience could not tell which guitarist was Johnson.
If Lockwood lacked the fame of Waters or Hooker, it was only because so much of his time was spent as a
sideman for other blues singers. Until the late 1970s, his recordings as a singer and bandleader were sporadic.
Lockwood rightly considered himself an innovator. His 1950s recordings as the guitarist for Little Walter and
the Jukes created an entirely new sound, bridging the gap between country blues and urban jump blues. Little
Walter's amplified harp would fill a room with dazzling swing riffs that Lockwood would answer with sliding
jazz chords and quick fills. Drummer Fred Below propelled the band by dropping bombs -- snare accents on the
off beat -- while second guitarist Louis Myers added his steadying touch substituting for a string bassist. On the
strength of such recordings as "My Babe" and "Off the Wall," they toured the country and played the Apollo
Theatre in Harlem.
In later years, Lockwood became a mainstay of blues festivals. I've lost count of how many times I saw him
perform (at least a dozen) but every time I watched his fretwork with awe and envy.
Performing as a soloist, Lockwood could take apart a classic piano piece like "Cow Cow Blues" or "Pinetop's
Boogie Woogie" and flawlessly re-create both the left- and right-hand parts on the guitar. It was an approach
that harked back to such greats of the 1920s and 1930s as Big Bill Broonzy and Hacksaw Harney -- an era when
the guitar or the piano could be the entire band. At this type of fingerpicking, Lockwood was the last master of
his generation.
Question-and-answer sessions often followed performances at festivals, and at one, a long-haired fan in a tiedye shirt and jeans asked him if you had to live the blues to sing it.
"No," he answered, then paused. "If you lived the blues, you'd be dead."
It was a typical Lockwood response: witty and laconic. Most of his audiences were a generation, a race and a
world removed from his and Robert Johnson's experience as impoverished African Americans in the Jim Crow
South. If Lockwood seemed happiest playing Johnson's music, he often felt obligated to tell these earnest new
fans that Johnson did not sell his soul to the devil at the crossroads, as myth had it.
As an admirer of Chet Atkins, Lockwood often played a Gretsch Country Gentleman, an electric guitar that
carried Atkins's endorsement. In the 1970s, he started playing a 12-string model with a very bright tone -- an
odd choice for a blues guitarist, but one that probably suited his deep-seated desire to play against the audience's
expectations. In fact, if you ever asked him, Lockwood would tell you that he considered himself a jazz
guitarist. He threw in an occasional bebop chord substitution and drove the band with an unerring sense of
swing. But it was still blues.
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Some years after I approached Lockwood about guitar lessons, I found myself in Cleveland playing a wedding
gig as guitarist for the Uptown Rhythm Kings. The people were wealthy enough to have two bands on the bill;
the Lockwood Allstars were the other band. The reception was in one of those old private clubs with cloth hand
towels in the restrooms and beautiful wood furniture that had begun to chip around the edges.
Our band arrived after a six-hour drive from Baltimore, and we were shown to one of two conference rooms
that were to serve as makeshift dressing rooms. Lockwood arrived with his wife, Annie. She took one look at
our singer Eric Sheridan catnapping on the floor and a pile of suit bags strewn across the conference table.
"Where's the dressing room?" she asked. Always one to protect her husband's interests, she was clearly ready
to make a scene. But Lockwood grasped that we had come a long way to do a job and he didn't want to wake
our sleeping singer.
"Leave it lay, Annie, leave it lay," he said.
Then he looked at me and jokingly asked if I could give him guitar lessons. My idol remembered me from that
day years ago.
I never did heed Lockwood's advice to take classical lessons, though. The best lessons were watching the master
play his blues.
Robert Lockwood Jr., blues icon, dies at 91
Clevelander's career spanned seven decades
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal staff writer
Robert Lockwood Jr., one of the few remaining authentic Delta Blues guitarists, who settled and became a
beloved and respected icon in Cleveland, has died.
Lockwood, 91, died Tuesday of respiratory failure at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, according to
spokesman George Stamatis. He had been a patient since suffering a stroke Nov. 3.
Lockwood was one of the few people on the planet who knew and learned guitar from blues icon Robert
Johnson -- he was briefly involved with Lockwood's mother. But Johnson was only the first among many blues
icons with whom Lockwood would cross paths.
During his more than seven-decade career, he played, recorded and rubbed shoulders with many of the genre's
greats, particularly during the 1950s, when, as a session player for the legendary Chicago-based blues label
Chess Records, he backed up Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim and Roosevelt Sykes. Longtime friend and former
protege B.B. King returned the favor by recording some duets on Lockwood's 1998 album I Got to Find Me a
Woman.
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Lockwood never received the national fame or wealth of his guitar-playing friend or some of his
contemporaries, but he was well known and highly respected among blues fans, who admired his playing on
classic songs such as Sonny Boy Williamson II's Don't Get Me to Talking.
When rock 'n' roll became the sound of popular music, Lockwood took the advice of his colleague and frequent
visitor Williamson and moved to Cleveland in 1960, where he supported his family by working various odd
jobs between gigs in local clubs, and mentored countless area blues men.
``It's a tremendous loss, a hole that can't be filled. He cannot be replaced,'' said Bill Miller, a harmonica player
known as ``Mr. Stress,'' who first met Lockwood in the 1960s.
``Musically, he was a pivotal figure, in the history of the music straddling the line between Robert Johnson and
the modern blues guitar style, though he also took great pride in his ability to play jazz,'' Miller said.
``Personally, he had a wicked sense of humor and he had a strong sense of dignity and who he was. God bless
him that at 91 he was still able to play, and there's no way that a musician can go any better than playing up
until the end.''
Colin Dussault was an underage, aspiring musician in 1985, when he used to sneak into Brothers Lounge to
hear Lockwood play. After Dussault started his own band in 1989, he and Lockwood would often cross paths
after gigs, and Dussault would buy the legend breakfast.
``He'd always order steak and shrimp, the most expensive thing on the menu,'' Dussault said, chuckling.
``We'd sit there for hours and he'd tell stories about Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon and all the Chess
Records people. As an 18-year-old aspiring musician, you can read and watch movies, but to sit across a table
and talk to someone who knew these people, it's an education you can't get anywhere else.''
Lockwood actually quit playing music a few times in his life, most recently in 1974, because ``I just got tired of
playing,'' he told the Beacon Journal in 2005. ``I got tired of no-playing musicians, but what keeps bringing me
back is people keep offering me more money.''
But it wasn't just the fact that he was making more money than he ever expected from being a ``blues player''
``I feel like I'd be cheating the people, and I say when you get to be a musician -- a full-time traveling musician
-- you owe it to the public to get out there,'' he said.
In the 1980s, Lockwood's longevity and continued music-making began to garner him awards. He was inducted
to the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989, received the National Heritage Fellowship Award from Hillary Clinton in
1995, and had a street in Cleveland's Flats named for him. Lockwood, like his old friend and fellow
nonagenarian Henry Townshend, who died in September, was truly one of the last great bluesmen. Through his
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playing, singing and willingness to share his knowledge and storied history with other musicians, he was a
direct flesh-and-blood conduit to a time and a culture exists now only in the laser-guided grooves of CD box
sets and the grainy footage of blues documentaries.
In the coming weeks, there will surely be several musical tributes to Lockwood that will find area blues
musicians vying for a chance to pay their own tribute to their friend and mentor through their music.
``He had some good paydays and thank God he lived as long as he did to collect some of the dues that he paid,
because he sure as hell paid them,'' Miller said.
``There's a hole in the city that won't be filled -- there's nobody around that can fill that hole.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at 330-996-3758 or mabram@thebeaconjournal.com.
Robert Lockwood Jr. ...noted Mississippi Delta blues guitarist; 91
The Lowell Sun
Article Last Updated:11/23/2006 11:36:06 AM EST
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Robert Lockwood Jr., a pioneering Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer who
forged a career in Cleveland, has died. He was 91.
Lockwood died Tuesday of respiratory failure at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, said spokesman
George Stamatis. He had been a patient since suffering a stroke on Nov. 3.
Lockwood was born in Turkey Scratch, Ark. At 11, he started guitar lessons with legendary bluesman Robert
Johnson, who briefly moved in with Lockwood's mother.
"He never showed me nothing two times," Lockwood said in a 2005 interview with The (Cleveland) Plain
Dealer. "After I got the foundation of the way he played, everything was easy."
Lockwood worked on street corners and in bars and became a musical mentor to B.B. King, who listened to
Lockwood in the 1940s on the "King Biscuit Time" radio show.
Lockwood moved to Chicago in the 1950s and was a session player on records by Little Walter, Sunnyland
Slim, Roosevelt Sykes and other blues musicians.He branched out from the
Robert Lockwood Jr. Passes On
Nov. 22, 2006
By John Schoenberger
Blues legend Robert Lockwood Jr. passed away on Nov. 21. He had been hospitalized and in critical condition
since Nov. 3 from a blood vessel that had burst in his head. He was 91.
Robert Lockwood Jr. was born March 27, 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Ark.. Lockwood’s first recordings came in
1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous "Bluebird Sessions" in Aurora, Ill.. During these sessions, he cut four
singles under his own name. These were the first incarnations of “Take A Little Walk with Me” and “Little Boy
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Blue,” Lockwood staples 60 years later. Over the years he recorded for Chess, Rounder, Trix, Delmark, Telarc
and M.C. Records.
In the last 20 years, the world has recognized Lockwood’s contributions to the blues genre. In 1980 he received
his first of many W.C. Handy Awards and in 1989 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. In 1995 he
received a National Heritage Fellowship
Award and in 1998 he was inducted into the Delta Blues Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Miss.
Robert Lockwood Jr. Timeline
March 27, 1915 -- Robert Lockwood Jr. is born in Turkey Scratch, Ark.
1926 -- He begins to learn guitar from his mother's boyfriend, Robert Johnson.
1930 -- The 15-year-old begins playing professionally, often with ``stepfather'' Johnson and others including
Sonny Boy Williamson II and guitarist Johnny Shines.
1941 -- He makes his recording debut with Doc Clayton and records four songs under his own name, including
concert staples Take a Little Walk with Me and Little Boy Blue. He also reteams with Williamson, becoming
part of his wildly popular live radio show. Aspiring guitarist Riley B. (aka B.B.) King is among the many rapt
listeners.
1950s -- Lockwood lives the life of an itinerant musician in hot spots such as Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago,
where he becomes a session man for Chess Records.
1960s -- Taking the advice of Williamson, Lockwood moves to Cleveland where he settles to raise his family,
working various jobs to make ends meet and playing area clubs.
1970s -- He records his debut solo album, Steady Rollin' Man, followed by five more, including Contrasts and
Does 12.
1980s -- Lockwood reteams with old friend Johnny Shines to record several albums. Already a local hero,
Lockwood begins to receive awards and accolades, including induction into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.
1990s -- The blues icon plays locally when not performing at music festivals around the world. After staying
out of the studio for much of the decade, he records “I Got to Find Me a Woman in 1998 [Robert Lockwood, Jr.
honored me by inviting me (Richard ‘Buddah’ Smith native Bassist of Philadelphia PA) as a side man on this CD
accompanied by guitarist Riley B. (BB) King.] garners him a Grammy nomination.
2000s – Lockwood earns Grammy nod for his 2000 album Delta Crossroads, continues to play locally and
internationally.
Source: www.robert-lockwood.com, www.allmusic.com
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Robert Lockwood, Jr. in his own words
Dick Russ
Created: 11/22/2006 2:34:39 PM
Updated:11/22/2006 4:13:47 PM
Blues legend Robert Lockwood, Jr. shares his music and memories
with Dick Russ in March, 2002, on Lockwood's 87th birthday.
Robert Lockwood, Jr., gets comfortable on a couch in the living room of his home on Cleveland's east side, the
same Lawnview Avenue house he's been living in for decades.
He offers his guest a taste of genuine southern moonshine, just in from somewhere in Alabama. "That's good
stuff," the blues legend opines, and proceeds on to a few bars of "C.C. Rider."
"See, I started to play music when I was eight years old. I started playing guitar at 13, and the guy who taught
me is on that wall right over there, Robert Johnson."
Lockwood points across the room to a large poster of Johnson, his stepfather and first teacher. "He was way
ahead of his time, so when he taught me to play he put me way ahead of my time."
"He played harmony and melody all at the same time on the guitar." Robert Junior duplicates his teacher's skill.
"And that's hard to do."
At 87, the blues master is comfortable with his guest, who grew up only six blocks away. In fact they had the
same house number in this east side neighborhood.
"That's a fact!" Lockwood chuckles, "but you weren't much more than a kid when I came up here." The
musician had moved to Cleveland from Chicago in 1960. He was born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas.
The tunes continue as the great guitarist starts to talk about his genuinely good health at 87. "I eat all the right
kind of foods. I try to do the right things for my body."
"You have to work at it. You have to take care of yourself." Lockwood boasts he does dozens of pushups and
knee-bends each day.
"Music had something to do with it, becuase if it don't be for music, I'd be square as a brick!"
Thoughts turn to his incredible career.
"Well, I taught B.B. King." A poster of his fellow blues legend also hangs on the living room wall. "He holds
me responsible for his career."
The music business has been good to Robert Lockwood, Jr., but he wishes he'd hit the big time a little earlier.
"You know if I had done 30 years ago what I have my mind on now, I'd be a millionaire. See, if I'd been with a
big company I'd be a millionaire."
He talks of a comeback, as if he'd been missing. Cleveland music fans have known and loved him for decades.
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"I can come back because I'm creative. I come back and made records. You can't stop me from coming back."
Setting down his 12 string on the ample coffee table in front of the couch, the man known mostly as Robert
Junior reminisces, and wonders if his guest wants another taste of moonshine.
"I got a street downtown. I got a day in the year here. I got a day in the year in Pittsburgh. Shoot, I mean these
people been so good to me it kind of scared me."
He hoped all the kindness was not because someone suspected he was close to the end. "I said, am I fixin' to
split, you know?"
The bluesman chuckles in that almost bawdy Lockwood laugh. "I don't think so!"
His guest shoots back, "I hope not!"
Robert Junior takes this as he takes everything, in perfect stride. "Oh, boy!" He leans forward, eyes the guitar,
and starts making plans for next three years.
Blues Pioneer Robert Lockwood Jr. Dies
November 22, 2006, 2:55 PM ET
Robert Lockwood Jr., a pioneering Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer, has died. He was 91. Lockwood
died yesterday (Nov. 21) of respiratory failure at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.
Hospital spokesman George Stamatis said Lockwood had been a patient since suffering a stroke on Nov. 3.
Lockwood was born in 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Ark. At age 11, he started guitar lessons with legendary
bluesman Robert Johnson, who briefly moved in with Lockwood's mother. "He never showed me nothing two
times," Lockwood said in a 2005 interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Lockwood worked on street corners and in bars and became a musical mentor to B.B. King, who listened to
Lockwood in the 1940s on the "King Biscuit Time" radio show broadcast from Helena, Ark.
Lockwood moved to Chicago in the 1950s and was a session player on records by Little Walter, Sunnyland
Slim, Roosevelt Sykes and other blues musicians. He branched out from the Delta-style blues to jump blues,
jazz and funk, recording for great independent blues labels such as Delmark, Trix and Rounder. In 1960, he
moved to Cleveland, and played in blues clubs for decades.
As a solo performer, Lockwood earned Grammy nominations for two albums: 1998's "I Got To Find Me a
Woman" and 2000's "Delta Crossroads."
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Robert Lockwood, Jr. - One of the last surviving roots bluesman of
the twentieth century.
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 100mile radius that year; notably Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Walter Jacobs, 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. He learned the guitar, at age eleven, from Robert
Johnson, the mysterious delta bluesman, who was living with his mother. From Johnson, Lockwood learned
chords, timing, and stage presence. By the age of fifteen, Robert was playing professionally, often with
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 Johnson played one side of the
Sunflower River, while Lockwood manned the other bank. The people of Clarksville, Mississippi were milling
around the bridge; they couldn’t tell which guitarist was Robert Johnson. Young Lockwood had learned
Johnson’s techniques very well.
Johnson’s fast lifestyle caught up with him, passing away in 1937. Lockwood was 22 but prepared for the
future.
Lockwood’s first recordings came in 1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous Bluebird Sessions in Aurora,
Illinois. During these sessions, he cut four singles under his own name. These were the first incarnations of
“Take A Little Walk with Me”, and “Little Boy Blue,” Lockwood staples sixty years later.
Later in 1941, Lockwood was back in Arkansas where he re-united with Sonny Boy II to host a live radio
program broadcast at noon from KFFA in Helena, sponsored by the King Biscuit Flower Company. James
“Peck” Curtis and Dudlow Taylor provided the rhythm. This show became a cultural phenomenon; everybody
would listen during his or her lunch hour. Several generations of southern bluesman can trace their musical
roots to the show.
Lockwood 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, the epitome of blues
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labels. 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.
Blues was giving way to Rock and Roll, even in Chicago, so Lockwood moved to Cleveland, Ohio at the urging
of his old pal, Sonny Boy. Settling down and raising a family took priorities but blues was still in his soul, just
on the back burner.
In the late 1960s Lockwood would gig all around Cleveland, playing whenever he got the chance. Longforgotten clubs like Pirates Cove and Brothers Lounge were places where Lockwood taught his blues to
generations of local musicians and fans.
Lockwood’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, Lockwood hooked up with famed musicologist, Pete Lowry to record Contrasts,
the first of two for Trix Records. Does 12 followed in 1975. They have been remastered and repackaged by Fuel
2000 Records.
In the early 1980s Lockwood teamed up with another long-time friend, Johnny Shines, to record three albums
for Rounder, which has been comprised into 1999’s Just the Blues. Plays Robert and Robert, a Black and Blue
recording of a solo show in Paris in 1982, was re-issued on Evidence in 1993.
From the early 1980s to 1996, there were no domestic Lockwood releases. In 1998, I’ve Got to Find Myself a
Woman was released by Verve, gaining a Grammy nomination. This was followed by Telarc’s Delta
Crossroads, also a Grammy contender in 2000. In 2001, What’s the Score was re-issued on Lockwood Records
which has the rights to his Japanese live recordings, previously only available on Peavine. They will be a future
project.
In the last twenty years, the Blues world has recognized Lockwood’s contributions to the genre. Recently,
Lockwood has amassed so many that it is not possible to list all of them. The most notable are:
1980 Lockwood receives the very first W.C. Handy Award for “best traditional blues album”
1989 Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame
1995 Received National Heritage Fellowship Award, presented by Hilary Clinton
1996 Cleveland Mayor, Michael White, proclaims February 3, as “Robert Lockwood Day”
1997 Has street named “Robert Lockwood, Jr. Way” in Cleveland’s Flat District
1998 Inducted into Delta Blues Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Mississippi
2001 Received Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland
2001 Received W.C. Handy for “best traditional blues album,” Delta Crossroads
2001 City of Pittsburgh named 8/18 “Robert Lockwood, Jr. Day”
2002 Received honorary Degree of "Doctor of Music" from Cleveland State University on 5/12
Not content to rest on his laurels, Lockwood is touring more than ever at age 86. Lockwood leads an eight-piece
band every Wednesday at Fat Fish Blue in Cleveland, roams the world playing his jazz-tinted Delta Blues, and
records once a year. Lockwood is in better mental and physical shape than many men years younger. His guitar
playing is as crisp as ever. Like a fine French cognac, he is only getting better with age; no dust, rust or must
here.
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(Dr. Lockwood Continued)
As Dr. Lockwood's career evolved, he became one of the most sought after and revered guitarists in the
business. Unlike Johnson whose playing style was kept a mystery, Dr. Lockwood became the esteemed
professor for a select group of emerging understudies such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Jimmy
Rogers, Matt "Guitar" Murphy and others. He was the guitar player's guitar player. Now put this into the
context of the impact he had on Rock-N-Roll and think of all the rock and rollers that refer to this list of
Robert's protégé's as influences. Artists such as Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Walsh, all Rock-Roll
Hall of Fame inductees were either directly or indirectly influenced by Dr. Lockwood. Of course, it doesn't stop
with these artists.
He explained that Johnson only showed him something once and you'd better learn it. In the case of B.B., Dr.
Lockwood would show him twice. If he didn't get it after that, he would slap him on the back of the hand like a
teacher with a ruler to reinforce the lesson plan. As history has shown, B.B. turned out alright.
At 91 years of age, Dr. Lockwood practiced everyday and encouraged others to do the same. He was very
insistent with developing musicians about continuous improvement, about learning other styles of music, of the
importance of having a teacher, and of being totally committed to the art form. He once spent three hours with a
young student sharing stories, coaching him, explaining "that guitar is going to be your woman from now on.
You're going to have to sleep with it [to be good at it]. And you need to get yourself a teacher!" Every time
since then, when he saw Lockwood, Lockwood would ask "do you have a teacher yet? Did you hear what I
said?!"
Dr. Lockwood set a high bar for his student constituency. He showed respect for other musicians. When he
performed with others, he would always ask the audience "would you do me favor? Would you please give
everyone you have heard up here today a big round of applause." He was always well dressed. As a performer
he was very adamant about the importance of appearance and was very critical of performers who dressed
down. He once asked Mick Jagger "with all that money you have, can't you afford to buy some decent clothes?"
He also believed in the importance of educating younger audiences so in 2004 and again in 2006, Dr. Lockwood
participated in blues education programs hosted by The Blue Shoe Project who recently released a recording of
the 2004 event and plans a DVD release later next year. He was joined by his long-time friends Henry
Townsend, Pinetop Perkins and Honeyboy Edwards. The four elders gave "storyteller" performances, sharing
their lives, their wisdom and their music with 1300 students in Fort Worth, Texas. Once again Dr. Lockwood
was the Professor, holding class for the new generation of blues believers, confirming his place in blues history
at the head of the class. The 2004 and 2006 events are possibly two of Dr. Lockwood's last live recordings.
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Dr. Lockwood's contributions to American music and blues in particular earned him two doctoral degrees,
making his Doctorate title official. He also received the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship
Award, the highest honor our country bestows on performers in the traditional arts, a crowning achievement
reserved for a very short list of American performing artists. He received numerous W.C. Handy (now Blues
Music) awards, several Grammy nominations, was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Delta Blues
Hall of Fame, has a street in Cleveland named after him, two Robert Lockwood, Jr. "days", one in Cleveland
and another in Pittsburgh, and too many other awards to mention.
In later years, Dr. Lockwood played a blue custom 12-string electric, one of only two ever made with a
resonance that was heavenly. As anyone will tell you, his style was impossible to copy let alone master.
Watching him play was a marvel of modern musicianship. Although his prowess as a band leader and composer
was extraordinary, his solo compositions on 12-string are arguably the best examples of the spirituality, the
complexity, the beauty and the genius that is undeniably Dr. Robert Lockwood, Jr.
His sometimes challenging demeanor was often misinterpreted. Most people would agree that he never mixed
words or beat around the bush. If he had something to say, he would lay it out there and you always knew where
you stood. And many times his volleys were followed by laughter proving his bark was much worse than his
bite.
The other side of Dr. Lockwood was one of the nurturer, the teacher, the professor; sharing of his wisdom, softspoken, kind, sincere and one of the most generous people you could ever meet. He would give you the shirt off
his back if you needed it and expected nothing in return. But you better need it!
Dr. Lockwood's secret of Longevity? He discovered early on that the secret to life was doing what you love to
do and he was passionate about music and everything about it. He loved learning music, teaching music and
playing music. He was a health nut long before it was popular. He worked out nearly every day. When he had
heart problems, he created an inversion plank that allowed him to invert himself regularly to take the pressure
off his heart. His problem went away. He was also a naturalist when it came to food. He purchased his meat and
poultry from the Amish for years, free of hormones and other unhealthy additives. He once told his long-time
friend Henry Townsend he needed to do the same and to get off the "dope meat."
Although drugs and the entertainment business seem to be synonymous, Dr. Lockwood had no interest in them.
His only vices were his music, fried catfish, and a little Hennessey now and then.
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Dr. Lockwood was the consummate teacher passing on to others what Robert Johnson had given to him;
teaching; about music, about appearance, about commitment, about friendship and about how to live your life –
the one and only "Professor of the blues."
View photos of Dr. Lockwood at the National Bikers Roundup, 8/20/06
Robert Lockwood Jr: 1915-2006
Another Blues Legend Passes into History
Saying goodbye to such an influential artist as Robert Lockwood, Jr., especially over the
Thanksgiving holidays, is never easy.
And yet, when considering how deep his musical genius intertwines throughout history, one
can't help but be thankful. His talent, voice, and charisma fashioned a vital cornerstone in
American culture. Lockwood wasn’t just a guitar player. He was an architect.
Born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas on March 27, 1915, Lockwood’s first exposure to performing
came while playing the pump organ at his father’s church. At age 11, he was introduced to the
guitar by famed bluesman Robert Johnson, who came to live with Lockwood’s mother after his
parents divorced.
Robert Johnson (whose blues origins were steeped in mystery) taught Lockwood everything
from chords to timing to stage presence. It was no easy task, especially since Johnson never
taught his apprentice/stepson the same method more than twice. But, by age 15, he had
mastered his stepfather’s technique. So well, in fact, that during a riverside show in Clarksville,
Mississippi, fans could hardly tell the two guitarists apart.
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After signing with Bluebird Records in 1941, Robert Lockwood, Jr. embarked on a prolific
recording career that spanned almost 7 decades. That same year, he and fellow bluesman Sonny
Boy Williamson II gained widespread recognition by performing on the historic KFFA, during
a program known as "King Biscuit Time." The cultural impact of the show was far-reaching,
inspiring countless southern blues musicians including Lockwood’s protege, B.B. King.
From 1944 to 1949, Lockwood toured the Midwest extensively, playing at venues in St. Louis,
Memphis, and Chicago. By the early 1950’s, he had become the signature recording artist for
Chess Records, the most prominent of blues record labels in the Windy City.
As rock and roll progressively dominated the music scene, Lockwood focused his energies
exclusively on the blues. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Robert aggressively recorded on
various labels, collaborating with Muddy Waters, Pete Lowry, and the Aces. Giving highprofile performances in almost-forgotten clubs around Cleveland, Lockwood shared his talents
with fellow blues players and fans.
Such was Robert Lockwood, Jr.’s dedication to the genre that, unsurprisingly, his achievements
garnered national recognition. Over the next 20 years, he received countless awards for his
contributions to blues and roots music. In 1980, Lockwood was handed the first ever W.C.
Handy Award for best blues album (three more were soon to follow). He was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame 1989, and in 1995, he received the National Heritage Fellowship Award
from then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. Not content to rest on his laurels, Lockwood earned an
honorary doctorate in 2001 from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, and a second from
Cleveland State University the following year.
But what justified Robert Lockwood, Jr. weren’t his lofty accolades. It came down to one word:
character. Despite a seemingly gruff demeanor, he exuded an uncanny level of generosity
towards his fellow man. For Lockwood, every statement of instruction or motivation always
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had an action to back it up. His philosophy was a simple one, not unlike that of a samurai
warrior: success comes only through practice and personal dedication.
In his final years of his life, Robert found the perfect medium to demonstrate that philosophy.
Thanks to The Blue Shoe Project, a non-profit organization promoting awareness of blues in
education, Lockwood became involved in a series of performances and educational programs
geared towards students. Most notably, he was featured alongside fellow blues contemporaries
David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins, and the late Henry James Townsend
in The Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen showcase earlier this year.
As an artist, performer, mentor, and family man, Robert Lockwood, Jr. truly experienced life
from all angles. His integrity, backed by nearly a century of unmatched skill, is what musicians,
fans, and now students, will remember for generations to come.
A Conversation with Robert Lockwood, Jr.
When I met Robert Lockwood, Jr. in June of 2000 he invited me to his home for an interview
for the Rock & Roll Library. Lockwood, now eighty years old, is a Grammy nominated blues
guitarist, one of the most famous Chicago sidemen of the fifties, and is the step-son of blues
legend Robert Johnson.
We want people to understand why you continue to play and why you continue to tour and how
important the music is in your life. Can you kind of speak to that?
RL: Well, in the beginning I started playing at eight. It's about all I ever learned really. I started
playing professionally at fifteen and I played by myself about ten years then I got a band. I been
playing all my life, and then the next thing, while I was real young, Robert Johnson come up to
my mothers house.
How old were you when you met Robert Johnson?
RL: I was thirteen.
Did he give you your first guitar?
RL: No, no, no. No, me and him together made a guitar.
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How did that sound?
RL: It didn't stay together long. My auntie bought my first guitar she's still living. She's only
four years older than I am. Well, anyway, Robert was a recording artist and he was way ahead
of his own time so, by him teaching me put me ahead of my own time.
What did people think about him at that time? When he was so far ahead of his own time? What
do you remember about that time?
RL: When you're ahead of your own time people don't know that you're ahead of your time. See
that's what really happened, they found out he's ahead of his time after he had done so much.
There wasn't anyone else doing it and that's when they said he was rare. You understand? By
him teaching me, put me way ahead of my own time. I started playing the piano then I switched
from the piano to the guitar. So I had a little experience with what the music was about and to
learn from him was easy because I was already playing. That's what my mother and him they
didn't understand that. But I learned fast, real fast
So he saw that you were good, that you picked it up very quickly.
RL: Yeah, then I was real good, real fast.
What type of ways did he influence your guitar style?
RL: Well, it wasn't nothing special to see. Everybody, all the guitar players, there was always
two of them. Robert was playing his own music, his own melody and backing himself up. So
that was easy to see. So I just said, well that's what I want to do. I got his picture there on the
wall. You ever seen it?
I have only seen two pictures of him.
RL: Two different pictures. One of him sitting crossed legged holding his guitar and this
picture, he's standing up with a guitar in his hand.
Did you have a good relationship? Were you friendly when you played?
RL: Well, yes, if we hadn't been, he'd never taught me. He didn't want to teach nobody.
Johnny Shine?
RL: He didn't teach nobody else. No damn body else. Nobody.
So that was a really unique experience for you.
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RL: Yes, and Johnny Shine to me was, well, we grew up pretty close together. I never went
nowhere with him but to Mississippi I went one place to play with Johnny in Arkansas.
Did you play with Robert Johnson a lot?
RL: No
Very rarely?
RL: Very rarely
A few occasions though? Once, in Mississippi you said?
RL: We were together twice in Mississippi and once in Arkansas. That's it.
How old were you when you played those gigs?
RL: How old was I? Fifteen, sixteen.
What was the climate of the places you were playing?
RL: There was no places.
You were playing at parties or in juke joints. And what about when you were finally able to get
into recording studios?
RL: When I made my first record from RCA
Was it Blackbird?
RL: In 1940.
Was that in Chicago?
RL: Yes and during that time it was in wartime so the material they made records out of was
very short. There was a hell of a shortage of that. So I started recording at the wrong time, didn't
get the right paper in the wrong time. So I couldn't I probably could've gotten another recording
session but I didn't really try. Well, our problem was they found me being so good, so young,
that I listened to all the other guys who were making records and there just was no comparison.
When I came up there to record the guy who was working for RCA Victor tried to brainwash
me and said I don't know whether your stuff's gonna sell or not. At that time it wasn't paying
nothing but fifty dollars and they were using four sides then for a recording session. Two
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records, and they would pay you fifty dollars for that, twelve fifty a side. I wouldn't record for
that.
That's when you went down to King Biscuit?
RL: Yes. So I wouldn't record for the twelve dollars fifty cents a side. Dr. Clayton and I were
together and Dr. Clayton being a little older than I was had a little better knowledge about what
was happening. He was a better-educated young fella anyway. So I got a thousand dollars for
doing my playing and recording with him.
That's a little better.
RL: That's a lot better. So after we done the recording session, I left Chicago and went back to
St. Louis. And I had to get a social security card before I could get paid. So I got the social
security card, came back to Chicago and picked up my money. And left there again and I went
back in 1940. I went back in 1941 and I stayed in Chicago until 1960. I worked for Chess,
Checker, Otto, RCA Victor. I worked out of all those studios. I worked as a studio musician for
about twelve years.
You got to play with a lot of different people then?
RL: That's the way I learned to play everything. Jazz and everything else.
Did you have a favorite person who came in to record?
RL: Well it wasn't that way, we was working for the company.
So you had to play with everybody?
RL: Whenever somebody was getting ready to record, we were up on the kind of things they
had done.
Were there people that you preferred to play with? Your friends?
RL: Normally we didn't hardly get a chance to know nobody. After you record for them then
you know them. When you're working out of a studio you don't have choices. So, whoever
come in there, whatever they done that fits their category, that's what you do.
And so much later in the 80's you started your own label?
RL: Oh, I only started my own label here lately. Since I been here. I had the label oh about ten
or eleven years. I started my own label because I got sick of people tryin to twist me into other
people's image. That's what they do. And if you don't like it you can't record. So I fixed that and
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got my own damn label so I could do what I want to do when I get ready. Ever since I have the
label people been steady wanting to hire me. They don't want us to have our own label. You
know they don't. They don't want the musicians today to have their own labels either. B.B. King
got his own already, Ray Charles got his, Stevie Wonder got his. They don't get time to record
on them.
RL: I got a manager and that's my son, and he usually charges for interviews, and we don't do
them for nothing so you're lucky.
I am honored you are talking with us today.
RL: I was responsible for B.B.'s career, Elsa Tucker and several other guys who I worked at. I
worked with Walter, I worked with Otis Span, I worked with Muddy Waters. I worked with the
Moonglows. If they didn't understand what was happening I had to teach them. So that's the
way they got taught. I never went out just to be no teacher. I played with B.B. about a year. His
timing was so damn bad he couldn't understand nothing I was trying to tell him. So his sponsor
wanted me to play a bass with him. He didn't know how to play nothing. He couldn't play lead
either. But his sponsor didn't know no more than he did you know, so I told his sponsor I, I
couldn't stop playing the guitar to play the bass and I told him what to do for him. B.B. didn't
know where that come from either. I told him to put him with a band and he'd have to find out
where he was going cause you can't work with no band unless you know something. So, B.B.
been listening to the bass ever since. He's listening to the bass right now. Now he can read. He
can read and play now. Yeah.
You have had a fantastic career there have been so many highlights; how was the Grammy
nomination in 1999?
RL: Well, there's so much about this business that you don't know about. I would have been in
the Grammy's damn near all my life but I never was handled by no big company. People don't
know. I been with the small company's it don't do you no good. You know, and, I guess it was
because I was eligible to lead everybody else's band, so I didn't really worry about it. I was
getting, there was decent pay. Didn't have to be no leader. I didn't have to be no really leader; I
was leading other people's bands. When I finally left Chicago I had to get my own band. When I
was in Chicago I didn't have to.
The blues embody so much about America and about the times and the way life was for so many
people
RL: Well, rhythm and entertainment seemingly, we was born with that. So the reason why blues
is so strong is Blues is history. And that'll never go. Plus, Blues was born in America it's really
the only American music. Blues and Jazz stuff that we recorded.
Who do you think is going to take blues into the next century? Are there any players out there
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that you like?
RL: (Laughing) Blues ain't never gonna go no place because it's too valuable as a whole.
But it continues to evolve, do you think?
RL: Yeah, all music does that. But the blues can't, ain't never gonna be able to go because it's
the foundation. I mean it'll do things that it has done, so far. It went from uh, rhythm to changes,
chord changes and big band, jazz, blues, there's been steady changes, I seen it change about five
or six times. And it kind of repeats itself. The more people learn about music then the more
changes they can make in it. I guess that's the way it is.
Are there any players or any young players that you see out there doing this?
RL: No. Young players only copping what we done. Well, in so many words it's getting simpler
because the white society don't know what's happening with a lot of things, it takes ya'll a long
time. You know what I used to have to do? When my clientele got white, I had to stop looking
at you all dance. I'm serious, I'm very serious.
At this point we were laughing out loud but Robert kept saying that he was serious and his eyes
told me he was. I had to close my eyes and just not look because I was laughing so hard tears
were running down my face.
I'm sorry
RL: Ya'll just didn't have no damn rhythm.
Robert's eyes had softened as he saw how embarrassed I was by my counterparts not knowing
how to dance. Laughing as well,
RL: Ain't nothing to be sorry about. Ya'll just don't have it till you find out what it is
We appreciate the music and we try to move to it.
RL: My clientele has been white for about forty or fifty years and I'm noticing that ya'll been
learning how to dance.
Good, cause we try.
RL: People are coming together little by little.
Do you see that?
RL: Music is the article that's been damaged. I had a Hillbilly band coming on behind me when
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I was in Little Rock, Arkansas. I worked on KLXR for I don't know, for a year. And it's
incredible the way musicians get along and the way ordinary square people get along. You just
don't know how pitiful it really is until you see it. That other band had six pieces, my band had
seven and we would join each other for each other's shows. And they were extraordinary good
and we were playing jazz and stuff and what caused us to get together was I was coming on
right in front of them. They was coming on right behind me. When I found out they was doing
this, the radio had needed a tube in my station wagon. I never got a chance to hear them.
So I guess I been on KLXR about four months later and my piano player put a tube in the radio.
The broadcast came on after. Let's listen to these goddamn Hillbillies. So I said ok and we
turned it on, like yesterday we had "One O'clock Jump" and stuff like that on the program. They
were taking everything we do and playing it tomorrow. That's what people do. When we turned
that radio on and somebody was doing "One O'clock Jump" it was Count Basie or somebody, a
damn string band! Laughing out loud, we all got out of the station wagon and went back inside
and the band leader fell on the floor. It was funny as hell. They were good musicians, very
good.
But they just couldn't play the "One O'clock Jump?"
RL: No, no. The person who was working in the station with them was involved in all different
stuff. After we got together, we was buying a half gallon of liquor everyday. There was thirteen
people so it was just enough to give everybody a little buzz. I guess we had been doing this
about a month I guess. So the little guy in the control room, he seen this. So he told me to come
up in his office. So I got ready to go up there, the other guy says I know this concerns the bands,
so he said I'm going too. I got up there and the guy starts saying he doesn't think it's very nice
that we are drinking together and all that. And the white boy hit the ceiling, we both did. When
we got through with his ass, he was drinking with us.
Big laugh from Robert.
So you had experiences where white musicians stood up for you.
RL: Nine times out of ten, musicians have not been prejudice. The square world is because they
don't know any better. Still don't know, and you're a hell of a victim because you don't know.
Congratulations to Robert Lockwood, Jr. who recently won a W.C. Handy Blues Award for
Best Acoustic Album 2000. Robert was also nominated for Traditional Male Artist of the Year.
His prior W.C. Handy Blues Awards include: 1999 - Traditional Male Artist of the Year and
1999 - Traditional Album of the Year.
Selected Discography:
Delta Crossroads 2000, Telarc
Robert Lockwood Jr. 2000, Black & Blue
Complete Trix Recordings 1999, Trix
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I Got to Find Me a Woman 1998, Verve
What's The Score 1991, Evidence
Plays Robert and Robert 1982, Evidence
Mr. Blues Is Back to Stay 1980, Rounder
Hangin' On 1979, Rounder
Does 12 1977, Trix
Blues Live in Japan 1975, Advent
Contrasts 1974, Trix
Steady Rollin' Man 1970, Delmark
Robert Lockwood, Jr. plays every Wednesday at FATFISH BLUE at the corners of Prospect
and Ontario, Cleveland, OH and you can also see him every Friday at Club XO located at 8307
Madison Cleveland, Ohio 44102
Copyright 2000 Rock & Roll Library All Rights Reserved. This article may not be published in
whole or in part with out writtten authorization from the Rock & Roll Library.
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