Yes, Fenton Robinson grew up on a cotton and corn plantation in Mississippi,and yes, he made his first guitar out of a cigar box and wire at 11. Guess a lot of blusemen did the same thing. How do you tune wires?
By the time I was turned on to his music, he had passed away. Credit goes to Mike Areford, a radio show host friend from Arrow 100.7 ('96-'05) in Jacksonville, who had a great blues show. He played "I Heard Some Blues Downstairs" fairly frequently. It was one of his favorites (and mine).
Fenton eventually wound up in Chicago via Memphis and made a recording of what many believe to be his best song "Somebody Loan Me a Dime" (1966). It was about to be distributed as a single but a snowstorm hit and the tune never got to where it belonged. Boz Skaggs would cover it on his debut album but not credit Fenton which led to a messy lawsuit.
Hard luck continued when Fenton was charged and convicted of involuntary vehicular manslaughter in 1974 and did prison time, hurting his career. This occured just after his Alligator Records release which had finally gotten some acclaim for "Somebody Loan Me a Dime".
In 1977 He released "I Hear Some Blues Downstairs". This title track reminds me of the late Son Seals. His voice is never overpowered by his hard picking on his hollow body guitar :
Now, I gonna get my hat and my coat
Because I begin to feel to groove
Baby, pass me my guitar
Then I'm going down
And play myself some blues
I hear some blues downstairs
Hey I hear some blues downstairs
And I see my old friends out in that alley
And they're singing all in the alley
I hear some blues downstairs
He continued to tour and do festivals, but died at 62 of complications from brain cancer.
He left some great music behind...
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