Robert Timothy Wilkins (January 16, 1896 – May 26, 1987) was an American

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

guitarist and vocalist, of African-American and

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

descent. His distinction was his versatility: he could play

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

, blues,

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enter ...

songs, and

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...

with equal facility.

Career

Wilkins was born in Hernando, Mississippi, 21 miles from

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. He performed in Memphis and north Mississippi during the 1920s and early 1930s, the same time as

Furry Lewis Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893 or 1899 – September 14, 1981) was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. He was one of the earliest of the blues musicians active in the 1920s to be brought out of ...

Memphis Minnie Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being " ...

(whom he claimed to have tutored), and

Son House Edward James "Son" House Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing. After years of hostility to secular music, as a prea ...

. He also organized a

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...

to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue. Though never attaining success comparable to that of the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station. From 1928 to 1936 he recorded for Victor and

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

, alone or with a single accompanist, like

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an A ...

, and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers. He sometimes performed as Tom Wilkins or as Tim Oliver (his stepfather's name). In 1936, at the age of 40, he quit playing the blues and joined the church after witnessing a murder where he performed. In 1950, he was ordained. In 1964 Wilkins was "rediscovered" by blues revival enthusiasts Dick and Louisa Spottswood, making appearances at

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

festivals A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

and recording his

gospel blues Gospel blues (or holy blues) is a form of blues-based gospel music that has been around since the inception of blues music. It combines evangelistic lyrics with blues instrumentation, often blues guitar accompaniment. According to musician an ...

for a new audience. These include the 1964

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

; his performance of "Prodigal Son" there was included on the

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the so ...

album ''Blues at Newport, Volume 2''. In 1964 he also recorded his first full album, ''Rev. Robert Wilkins: Memphis Gospel Singer'', for Piedmont Records. Another full session, recorded live at the 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival, was released in 1993 as ''"...Remember Me"''. Wilkins died on May 26, 1987, in Memphis at the age of 91. His son, Reverend John Wilkins (1943–2020), continued his father's gospel blues legacy. His best-known songs are "That's No Way to Get Along" and his reworked gospel version, "The Prodigal Son" (covered under the title “Prodigal Son” by the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

on their 1968 album '' Beggars Banquet''), “Rollin' Stone” parts 1 and 2 (the first known recording of the phrase ‘Rolling Stone'), and "Old Jim Canan's". There were some crediting issues surrounding the Rolling Stones’ cover of “The Prodigal Son”. Early pressings of Beggars Banquet credited

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

and

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership wi ...

as composers, rather than Wilkins. The original Beggars Banquet toilet cover credited Wilkins. When the record company rejected the toilet cover, the revised invitation-inspired cover mistakenly credited Jagger-Richards as composer. Once the error was pointed out to London Records and the Stones business office, publishing, royalties and other attendant financial details were fixed, and Wilkins was properly credited. Recent CD reissues use the toilet cover with the correct crediting. Despite the confusion, Wilkins was pleased to have his song covered: “He seemed quite happy that people will be hearing his song“.

References

External links

Illustrated Robert Wilkins discography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Robert 1896 births 1987 deaths People from Hernando, Mississippi American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent Blues musicians from Mississippi Country blues musicians Gospel blues musicians Mississippi Blues Trail Memphis blues musicians 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Mississippi 20th-century American male musicians

Career

See also

References

External links