Robert Lee "Smokey" Wilson (July 11, 1936 – September 8, 2015) was an American

West Coast blues West Coast blues is a type of blues music influenced by jazz and jump blues, with strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s. West Coast blues also f ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

. He spent most of his career performing West Coast blues and

juke joint blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afric ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. He recorded a number of

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s for

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

s such as

P-Vine Records P-Vine Records is an independent record label based in Tokyo, Japan. History It was started in 1976 by Blues Interactions, a firm founded in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi, as a record label focused on black music. The label name c ...

, Bullseye Blues and Texmuse Records. His career got off to a late start, with international recognition eluding him until the 1990s.

Biography

Wilson was born in Glen Allan, Mississippi, and raised in

Lake Village, Arkansas Lake Village is a city in and the county seat of Chicot County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,575 at the 2010 census. It is located in the Arkansas Delta. Lake Village is named for its location on Lake Chicot, an oxbow lake f ...

, He played alongside Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, Big Jack Johnson, and Frank Frost, before his move to Los Angeles in 1970. He opened the Pioneer Club in Watts, where he was the

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

of the

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

. He also In booked blues musicians to perform at the club, including

Big Joe Turner Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due t ...

Percy Mayfield Percy Mayfield (August 12, 1920August 11, 1984) was an American Rhythm and blues singer with a smooth vocal style. He also was a songwriter, known for the songs " Please Send Me Someone to Love" and " Hit the Road Jack", the latter being a song ...

, Pee Wee Crayton and

Albert Collins Albert Gene Drewery, known as Albert Collins and the Ice Man (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993),Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. ...

. His down-to-earth guitar playing was typical of his

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yaz ...

background. "I bring the cotton-field with me," he said, "and I got the juke-joint inside." Wilson released two albums on Big Town Records in the 1970s. His 1983 album, ''88th Street Blues'', for the Murray Brothers label (later reissued by Blind Pig Records) had contributions from Rod Piazza (

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica in ...

and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

) and Hollywood Fats (

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guita ...

). Wilson performed at the

Long Beach Blues Festival The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West Coast (first being the San Francisco Blues Festival). It ...

in 1980, 1981 and 1999; having earlier appeared at the

San Francisco Blues Festival The San Francisco Blues Festival was active from 1973 until 2008, and was located in San Francisco, California. It was the one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. History Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the ...

in 1978. ''Smoke n' Fire'' (1993) and ''

The Real Deal (The) Real Deal may refer to: Television * ''The Real Deal'' (TV series), retitled ''The Real Estate Pros'', a U.S. reality show * ''Dickinson's Real Deal'', a UK modern antiques and collectables programme ** ''Real Deal'' (American TV series), ...

'' (1995) followed, as Wilson's reputation began to grow as he reached his sixtieth year. Whilst Wilson's years of residency at the Pioneer Club did little to secure nationwide recognition, he appeared on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

special ''Three Generation of Blues'', with

Robert Cray Robert William Cray (born August 1, 1953) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards. Early life Robert Cray was born on August 1, 1953, in Columbus, Georgia, while his father was stationed a ...

and

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

. He also appeared in various television commercials, including

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

's "The Watcher," and FOX's "Divas", plus in a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

made by Babyface. Wilson died in his sleep on September 8, 2015, in Los Angeles, California.

Discography

*''Blowin' Smoke'' (1977), Big Town; reissued on CD by

P-Vine P-Vine Records is an independent record label based in Tokyo, Japan. History It was started in 1976 by Blues Interactions, a firm founded in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi, as a record label focused on black music. The label name c ...

*''Sings the Blues'' (1978), Big Town; reissued on CD by P-Vine *''88th Street Blues'' (1983); reissued in 1995 by Blind Pig *''With the William Clarke Band'' (1990), Black Magic *''Smoke n' Fire'' (1993), Bullseye Blues *''

'' (1995), Bullseye Blues *''The Man from Mars'' (1997), Bullseye Blues *''Smokey Stack Lightnin (1995), Vivid Sound; recorded in Japan *''Push'' (1999), previously unreleased Big Town recordings, P-Vine *''Ready to Roll'' (2003), with the Andy T Band, Marble

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Smokey 1936 births 2015 deaths American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers American male singers Songwriters from Mississippi Electric blues musicians Singers from Mississippi Blues musicians from Mississippi Guitarists from Mississippi 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters

Biography

Discography

See also

References