I Don't Know - Odie Payne w/ Robert Jr. Lockwood

Odie Payne (vocal & drums) Robert Jr Lockwood (guitar) Gene Schwartz (bass) and Sumito Ariyoshi (piano)
Odie Payne (August 27, 1926 – March 1, 1989) was an American Chicago blues drummer. Over his long career Payne worked with a range of musicians including Sonny Boy Williamson II, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Little Johnny Jones, Tampa Red, Otis Rush, Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Minnie, Magic Sam, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Guy.
He was born Odie Payne Jr. in Chicago, Illinois. Payne was interested in music from an early age, and did not restrict himself to a narrow musical genre. He studied music in high school and later drafted into the Army, but upon his discharge, Payne graduated from the Roy C. Knapp School of Percussion. By 1949 Payne was playing along with the pianist Little Johnny Jones, before meeting Tampa Red and enlisting into his band. The association lasted for around three years before, in 1952, Payne and Jones joined Elmore James's band, the Broomdusters.

Payne played with the Broomdusters for another three years, although his recording association with them lasted through to 1959. In total he recorded thirty one singles with them, including "The Sky Is Crying". By this time Payne had become a favored session musician appearing through that decade on the Cobra label, with Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Buddy Guy. His playing also can be heard on various Chess records, including the Chuck Berry hit singles "Nadine", "You Never Can Tell", "Promised Land" and 1964's "No Particular Place to Go." All appeared on the Berry's 1982 compilation album, The Great Twenty-Eight.

Noted for his usage of the cowbell, bass drum pedal, and extended cymbal and drum rolls, Payne's double shuffle drumming technique was much copied and utilised by both Fred Below and Sam Lay. The technique called for Payne to use both his hands to effect the shuffle effect.

Payne appears to have a songwriting credit to his name for the song "Say Man," which was recorded by both Bo Diddley and Willie Mabon; although Payne's name certainly did not appear on every version published.

Odie Payne died in Chicago in March 1989, at the age of 62.
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Early Video of Robert Jr and Sonny Boy Williamson

Max Moore, owner of Interstate Grocery in Helena, Arkansas, was the sponsor for radio station KFFA's "King Biscuit Time" program. We believe he shot this home movie circa 1942. In it, renowned blues musicians Robert 'Junior' Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson perform on the front porch of a small-town Arkansas grocery store. This is likely the earliest footage of these musicians performing together. The second portion of the clip is a 1952 tour featuring Williamson and his band. This film was preserved with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Max Moore Home Movie Collection.
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Stormy Monday - Robert Jr. Lockwood and Blue Lunch

Excited fan getting autograph from Jr. at Chesapeake Bay Blues Fest.

Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, (March 27, 1915 – November 21, 2006) was an American blues guitarist who recorded for Chess Records among other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known as a longtime collaborator with Sonny Boy Williamson II, and for his work in the mid 1950s with Little Walter Jacobs.
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Mr. Downchild - Robert Junior Lockwood - Robert Johnson - Interview

Robert Jr. Lockwood interviewed and discussing Robert JOhnson as well as his relationship with him. Playing a small segment of Mr. Downchild. This song is on a collaborative effort between Robert Jr. and Ronnie Earl called Surrounded by Love.

Robert Lockwood, Jr., also known as Robert Junior Lockwood, (March 27, 1915 – November 21, 2006)[1] was an American blues guitarist who recorded for Chess Records among other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known as a longtime collaborator with Sonny Boy Williamson II, and for his work in the mid 1950s with Little Walter Jacobs.

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Mr. Downchild - Robert Junior Lockwood

Robert Lockwood Jr. was born March 27, 1915 in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, a farming hamlet about 25 miles west of Helena. 1915 was remarkable because several other monumental blues artists were born within a 100-mile radius that year; notably Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Walter Jacobs, Memphis Slim, Johnny Shines, and Honeyboy Edwards. They would all meet up in the future.

His first musical lessons were on the family pump organ. He learned the guitar, at age eleven, from Robert Johnson, the mysterious delta bluesman, who was living with his mother. From Johnson, Lockwood learned chords, timing, and stage presence. By the age of fifteen, Robert was playing professionally, often with Johnson; sometimes with Johnny Shines or Rice Miller, who would soon be calling himself Sonny Boy Williamson II. They would play fish fries, juke joints, and street corners. Once Johnson played one side of the Sunflower River, while Lockwood manned the other bank. The people of Clarksville, Mississippi were milling around the bridge; they couldn’t tell which guitarist was Robert Johnson. Young Lockwood had learned Johnson’s techniques very well.

Johnson’s fast lifestyle caught up with him, passing away in 1937. Lockwood was 22 but prepared for the future.

Lockwood’s first recordings came in 1941, with Doc Clayton, on his famous Bluebird Sessions in Aurora, Illinois. During these sessions, he cut four singles under his own name. These were the first incarnations of “Take A Little Walk with Me”, and “Little Boy Blue,” Lockwood staples sixty years later.

Later in 1941, Lockwood was back in Arkansas where he re-united with Sonny Boy II to host a live radio program broadcast at noon from KFFA in Helena, sponsored by the King Biscuit Flower Company. James “Peck” Curtis and Dudlow Taylor provided the rhythm. This show became a cultural phenomenon; everybody would listen during his or her lunch hour. Several generations of southern bluesman can trace their musical roots to the show.

Lockwood moved around, the usual route was Memphis, St. Louis, to Chicago. By the early 1950’s, he had surfaced in the Windy City, where he became the top session man for Chess Records, the epitome of blues labels. Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Eddie Boyd, whom he toured with for six years, you can hear his smooth chords on their recordings.

Blues was giving way to Rock and Roll, even in Chicago, so Lockwood moved to Cleveland, Ohio at the urging of his old pal, Sonny Boy. Settling down and raising a family took priorities but blues was still in his soul, just on the back burner.

In the late 1960s Lockwood would gig all around Cleveland, playing whenever he got the chance. Long-forgotten clubs like Pirates Cove and Brothers Lounge were places where Lockwood taught his blues to generations of local musicians and fans.

Lockwood’s solo recording career, exclusive of the 1941 Bluebird Sessions, began in 1970 with Delmark’s Steady Rollin’ Man, backed by old friends Louis Myers, his brother Dave Myers, and Fred Below, collectively known as The Aces. In 1972, Lockwood hooked up with famed musicologist, Pete Lowry to record Contrasts, the first of two for Trix Records. Does 12 followed in 1975. They have been remastered and repackaged by Fuel 2000 Records.

In the early 1980s Lockwood teamed up with another long-time friend, Johnny Shines, to record three albums for Rounder, which has been comprised into 1999’s Just the Blues. Plays Robert and Robert, a Black and Blue recording of a solo show in Paris in 1982, was re-issued on Evidence in 1993.

From the early 1980s to 1996, there were no domestic Lockwood releases. In 1998, I’ve Got to Find Myself a Woman was released by Verve, gaining a Grammy nomination. This was followed by Telarc’s Delta Crossroads, also a Grammy contender in 2000. In 2001,
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