Jimmie Lee Robinson

By: Greg Johnson

Article Reprint from the August, 2002 BluesNotes
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Jimmie Lee Robinson was one of the first Chicago-bred Bluesmen. He grew up on its streets and loved the musicians and atmosphere it inspired. He never left his hometown throughout his life, other than to tour as a working musician. To him, it meant everything, and it was worth fighting for.

His family was originally from Hillhouse, Mississippi. His great-grandfather, Mose Jenkins, had been a slave, working as a waterboy for the hands in the fields. Following his new-found freedom after the Civil War, Jenkins became a travelling preacher and took as his wife a Choctaw Indian. Jenkins later moved with his daughter's family to Chicago, her husband being a factory laborer and a barber. Jimmie Lee Robinson's parents were Almor Smith and Emma Robinson, to whom he was born on April 30, 1931.

Raised by his mother and grandparents, Jimmie lived only a few blocks from the massive street market on Maxwell Street known as "Jewtown." The street had long been a gathering place for busking musicians on weekends, and by the time that Jimmie was 11 years old, he was already taking his place playing on the corners. Beginning in 1942, he would work off-and-on with such noted Blues artists as Johnny Young, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, Homesick James and Snooky Pryor, playing mostly for tips. While still a teenager, he also took occasional gigs sitting in with the likes of Memphis Minnie, Big Bill Broonzy and Robert Nighthawk in some of the area's clubs.

Another musician that young Jimmie would play with was Eddie Taylor. The two soon formed their own duet and began working as a regular partnership in clubs near Maxwell Street. Their pairing came to an abrupt end though in 1952, when Jimmie had a particularly heated argument with his father-in-law and ended up spending a brief time in prison.

One day shortly after his release, Jimmie visited a welfare office and met a young Freddie King. King was in a predicament at the time, as he had taken a gig in a local club, but had neither a band nor equipment to fulfill the engagement. He asked Jimmie if he would like to join him and they borrowed the extra guitar and amplifier for King from one of Jimmie's friends. After the show, they began working regularly as a duet, but eventually decided to hire drummer Frank "Little Sonny" Scott. Together, the trio called themselves The Every Hour Blues Boys. The band was quite popular and often worked shows alongside B.B. King and Little Walter, but broke up only four short years later.

Following the disbandment of The Every Hour Blues Boys, Jimmie teamed up with Elmore James in an early rendition of his band, The Broomdusters. As a duo the pair worked steadily and thought about going out on tour. But, shortly before the decision was made, Jimmie was approached by Little Walter and asked to go on the road with his band. It was a fairly easy decision to make, though. Between Elmore and Walter, the better paying gigs would be with Walter, as he was at the peak of his career at the time.

Jimmie stayed with Little Walter's band for three years. That first tour found him on the road alongside Walter, Smokey Smothers and Odie Payne. The harmonica player had a quick temper and members of the band came and went. But, despite the arguments, Walter and Jimmie would stick together. During his tenure, the band went into the studio many times. But, Leonard Chess did not like to tempt success and much like he did with his other money-making artists, always insisted on using the same session-men that had worked for him in the past. So even though Jimmie was present in the studio, most sessions found Robert Lockwood, Jr. playing guitar behind Walter. Jimmie did actually find playing time on a handful of sessions, but went uncredited for his efforts.

In 1959, he left Little Walter and joined Magic Sam's band as a bassist. While working with Sam, he also found time to do sessions with his old friend Eddie Taylor on the Vee Jay label. It was also during this period that a new fledgling label named Bandera approached Jimmie about recording sides of his own. His first of three outings was the company's debut single, Cry Over Me, with accompaniment by guitarist Luther Tucker. On the B-side of the single was the song Lonely Travelling, from which Jimmie earned his life-long nickname, "The Lonely Traveller."

The single was followed in 1960 with his second release, All My Life. Backed by guitarist Eddy Clearwater, the song became a regional hit. In an attempt to give the song further exposure, he booked himself on a tour through Texas with Jimmy Reed. Though the tour was unsuccessful, the song itself found later life when it was covered by British Bluesman John Mayall.

For the next five years, Jimmie Lee Robinson worked primarily as a session musician. During this period he recorded substantially and can be found on recordings made by Howlin' Wolf, Sunnyland Slim, Shakey Jake Harris, Eddy Clearwater, St. Louis Jimmy Oden and Willie Mabon, among others. In 1965, he was asked to be a part of the American Folk Blues Festival which took him to Europe for the first time alongside John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Eddie Boyd, Big Walter Horton and Buddy Guy. Upon his return from Europe, Jimmie decided to retire from the life of a full-time musician.

During the following years, throughout the remainder of the 1960s and up until 1990, Jimmie made occasional appearances and even recorded briefly with harmonica player Little Willie Anderson (Swinging The Blues, 1979, Blues Over Blues Records). But he made his living in a variety of different occupations, including owning his own cab business, working as a carpenter and as a security guard for the Chicago Board of Education.

In 1990, a group of Blues enthusiasts who performed together as The Ice Cream Men began to persuade Jimmie to perform off-and-on in small venues around Chicago. During one of these gigs, the band was asked to participate in the 1991 Chicago Blues Festival. Jimmie's performance at that event brought him new-found recognition and he was eventually signed to a recording contract with Delmark Records. His first release for the label was titled The Lonely Traveller in 1994. Jimmie decided that he would work as a solo musician from that point forward, because it would be more advantageous for him monetarily.

Over the next 12 years, Jimmie Lee Robinson worked steadily, playing festivals and tours, as well as recording. He released two albums in the second half of the '90s on his own label, Amina (Guns, Gangs And Drugs, 1996 and Maxwell Street Blues, 1998). He also became one of the key artists for the APO label, where he released the final two albums of his life (Remember Me, 1998 and All My Life, 2001). Another recording project found him exposing elder Bluesmen that had shamefully been overlooked, including his old friend Little Sonny Scott, alongside Willie Hudson, Sleepy Otis Hunt and Bill Warren. The name of the project was The Lost American Bluesmen, released on the Midnight Creeper label, with Jimmie contributing two solo pieces himself.

Jimmie Lee Robinson made quite a name for himself as a Blues artist in Chicago. But he may be best remembered for his tireless efforts to save the historic Maxwell Street district from demolition. Beginning in 1998, Jimmie joined the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition, which was attempting to save what buildings were left of the old marketplace. He wrote a song entitled The Maxwell Street Tear Down Blues, which was first performed at a protest rally at Maxwell and Halsted Streets on April 4, 1998. Jimmie also gave more than just his music for the cause and took on two lengthy protest fasts; one in 1998 that lasted 62 days and another in 2000 for 81 days, which resulted in massive media exposure, including a story in the New York Times. He only ended the second fast on requests from his friends who thought he would otherwise die, having already lost a total of 40 pounds over the time period.

Jimmie's health had began to take a turn for the worse over the last year of his life. A malignant tumor was removed from his sinus cavity in April of 2002, but the cancer had already begun to spread throughout his body. The pain was tremendous and eventually became too much burden for him to handle. Jimmie Lee Robinson ended his life with a self-inflicted gunshot on July 6, 2002. He was 71 years old.

In a press release following his fast in 2000, Jimmie Lee Robinson spoke in memory of the past musicians of Maxwell Street. He said, "They lived in the day's troubles. And when they died, they died from the troubles of this world. And history knows them not. These were the true pioneers of the Blues." So was the life of Jimmie Lee Robinson. Let him not be forgotten.

Jimmie Lee Robinson

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