Roosevelt Sykes

"Honeydripper" redirects here. For the film, see Honeydripper (film).

Roosevelt Sykes
Background information
Also known as	The Honeydripper
Born	(1906-01-31)January 31, 1906 Elmar, Arkansas, United States
Died	New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genres	Blues, boogie-woogie
Occupation(s)	Pianist, singer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1920s–1983
Labels	Various

Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906 – July 17, 1983) was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.

Career

Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on the road playing piano with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden., author of the blues standard "Goin' Down Slow".

In 1929 he was spotted by a talent scout and sent to New York City to record for Okeh Records. His first release was "'44' Blues" which became a blues standard and his trademark. He quickly began recording for multiple labels under various names including Easy Papa Johnson, Dobby Bragg and Willie Kelly. After he and Oden moved to Chicago he found his first period of fame when he signed with Decca Records in 1934. In 1943, he signed with Bluebird Records and recorded with The Honeydrippers. Sykes and Oden continued their musical friendship well into the 60s.

In Chicago, Sykes began to display an increasing urbanity in his lyric-writing, using an eight-bar blues pop gospel structure instead of the traditional twelve-bar blues. However, despite the growing urbanity of his outlook, he gradually became less competitive in the post-World War II music scene. After his RCA Victor contract expired, he continued to record for smaller labels, such as United, until his opportunities ran out in the mid-1950s.

Roosevelt left Chicago in 1954 for New Orleans as electric blues was taking over the Chicago blues clubs. When he returned to recording in the 1960s it was for labels such as Delmark, Bluesville, Storyville and Folkways that were documenting the quickly passing blues history. He lived out his final years in New Orleans, where he died from a heart attack on July 17, 1983.

Legacy

Sykes had a long career spanning the pre-war and postwar eras. His pounding piano boogies and risqué lyrics characterize his contributions to the blues. He was responsible for influential blues songs such as "44 Blues", "Driving Wheel", and "Night Time Is the Right Time".

He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in 2011.

Selected discography

• The Return of Roosevelt Sykes (Bluesville, 1960)
• The Honeydripper (Bluesville, 1961)
• Piano Blues (Folkways, 1966)
• Blues Roots/Chicago – The 1930's (Folkways, 1967)
• The Country Blues Piano Ace 1929–1932 (Yazoo, 1972)
• Feel Like Blowing My Horn (Delmark, 1973)
• Blues by Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes (Smithsonian Folkways, 1995)

External links

• Sykes' CD discography at Smithsonian Folkways