Weepin' Willie Robinson Born
On this day in 1926, "Boston's Elder Statesman of the Blues," Weepin' Willie Robinson, was born. Raised in the South, he launched his musical career in Trenton, New Jersey, before coming to Boston in the late 1950s. Although Boston had a much smaller black population than Chicago or Detroit, "all the players came through here." Roxbury, Willie later remembered, was "where it was happening in those days. It was hot." Famous bluesmen played here, and Weepin' Willie sang with them all. In the 1960s Boston was a mecca for the blues, as college students and young folk and rock musicians swelled the audience at the city's clubs. In 2000 the Blues Trust Foundation presented Weepin' Willie Robinson with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
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