Robert Lee Lowery (April 8, 1931 – October 25, 2016) was an American blues singer and guitarist.

Biography

As a teenager, he picked up blues tunes from records by

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list ...

Blind Boy Fuller Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen, July 10, 1904February 13, 1941) was an American blues guitarist and singer. Fuller was one of the most popular of the recorded Piedmont blues artists, rural African Americans, along with Blind Blake, Josh Whi ...

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), " My Baby Left Me" and "So Gl ...

, and others, eventually developing his own distinctive style. After moving to

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...

in 1957, he backed up Big Mama Thornton. Lowery made his first major concert appearance in 1974, 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 ...

, and appeared there again in 1976 and 1984. Since then, he has traveled worldwide, and performed at many blues festivals and concerts, including a special appearance of fellow Arkansas native President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's 1993 inauguration. Lowery has released many recordings on diverse record labels, some of which are currently available. More recently, Lowery's reputation as an authentic Delta blues musician has taken him far beyond California. He played the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2006,

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...

in 2007, Philadelphia Blues Festival, Eureka Springs Festival in Arkansas, the San Remo Blues Festival in Italy and the North Sea Jazz Festival in the

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. He recorded a television commercial for

MCI Inc. MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...

, singing about how his telephone bill was too high.

Selected discography

Singles

*"Way Down Behind The Sun" / "Lowery Boogie", Delta Blues, Blues Connoisseur 1013

Albums

References

External links

Robert Lowery & Virgil Thrasher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowery, Robert 1931 births 2016 deaths Country blues singers West Coast blues musicians Musicians from Arkansas