Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes, American blues pianist, was born on 31st Jan. 1906

We are a few days adrift with this one with several anniversaries on the same day, but it's a chance to recognise one of the great personalities of blues piano and songwriting. Roosevelt Sykes was born in Arkansas on January 31st 1906, and by his mid-teens was travelling the Mississippi river playing barrelhouse blues piano to the predominantly male audiences of the mills and work camps along the valley, the breeding ground for the raunchy explicit songs which came to characterise his compositions and repertoire. He pitched up in St. Louis, and was spotted by an Okeh Records talent scout and went to record in New York. His first release in 1929, "44 Blues", became his trademark song, and he was soon recording for a variety of labels under different names. He moved to Chicago, and signed to Decca in 1934, moving after several years to Bluebird, recording with The Honeydrippers - he acquired his nickname of "The Honeydripper" long before the hit R&B song of that name was written. Although he was writing songs in the popular urban idiom during the '40s his career began to wane somewhat, and in the '50s he found himself recording for smaller labels, and in 1954 left Chicago as electric blues was taking over the scene, and moved to New Orleans, performing and recording within the folk/blues revival circuit, as a result of which he enjoyed considerable popularity in Europe. Acrobat has a collection of his most successful material from the '30s and '40s on catalogue - for details click here.