Biography of Robert Lockwood, Jr.

Lockwood was actually christened after his father, but the junior part of his name has stuck with him to the present day because of his association with his "stepfather," Delta legend Robert Johnson. When he first started recording in 1941, it was with a heavy debt to Johnson (few play that style better than Lockwood, and for good reason), but playing with harmonica wizard Sonny Boy Williamson on the original King Biscuit Time radio show broadened his tastes. The resulting jazz-influenced tinges remain hallmarks of his later work and, in the process, influenced a young B. B. King. One of the main house musicians used by Chess Records in the '50s, Lockwood played behind Sonny Boy, Little Walter, and Chuck Berry, to name a few, but never appeared as a solo artist. Moving to Cleveland, OH, in the early '60s, Lockwood formed his own bands, exploring every strain of music that appealed to him in his typically stubborn and adventuresome manner. Not merely slavishly recycling or exploiting his connection to the Robert Johnson legend, Robert Jr Lockwood has remained his own man, with a fine brace of solo recordings from his later years to prove it. ~ Cub Koda