Artist's albums
Raining in My Heart
2000 · album
Roosevelt Sykes - West Helena Blues
2000 · album
Roosevelt Sykes 1929 - 1942
2000 · album
My Baby Is Gone
2021 · album
The Honeydripper Blues
2021 · album
The Honey Dripper
2020 · single
Blues Piano and Guitar
2019 · album
Rock it
2015 · album
Honeydripper
2015 · album
Roosevelt Sykes (Doxy Collection)
2014 · album
Roosevelt Sykes "Live" At Webster College 1974
2014 · album
The Original Honeydripper
2013 · album
Essential Blues Masters
2010 · album
Music Is My Business
2009 · album
Drivin' Wheel (The Best Of)
2009 · compilation
The Honey Dripper
2008 · album
A Night to Remember
2008 · album
Love Lease Blues
2008 · album
The Last Laugh
2008 · album
The Honey Dripper's Ball
2007 · album
The Meek
2006 · album
Chicago Boogie
2004 · album
Double Barreled Boogie
2004 · album
The Way I Feel: The Best Of Roosevelt Sykes And Lee Green
2003 · compilation
Chicago Blues Festival '70 (Blues Reference)
2002 · album
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Biography
Next time someone voices the goofball opinion that blues is simply too depressing to embrace, sit 'em down and expose 'em to a heady dose of Roosevelt Sykes. If he doesn't change their minds, nothing will. There was absolutely nothing downbeat about this roly-poly, effervescent pianist (nicknamed "Honeydripper" for his youthful prowess around the girls), whose lengthy career spanned the pre-war and postwar eras with no interruption whatsoever. Sykes' romping boogies and hilariously risqué lyrics (his double-entendre gems included "Dirty Mother for You," "Ice Cream Freezer," and "Peeping Tom") characterize his monumental contributions to the blues idiom. He was a pioneering piano pounder responsible for the seminal pieces "44 Blues," "Driving Wheel," and [RoviLink="MC"]"Night Time Is the Right Time." [/RoviLink]Sykes began playing while growing up in Helena. At age 15, he hit the road, developing his rowdy barrelhouse style around the blues-fertile St. Louis area. Sykes began recording in 1929 for OKeh and was signed to four different labels the next year under four different names (he was variously billed as Dobby Bragg, Willie Kelly, and Easy Papa Johnson)! Sykes joined Decca Records in 1935, where his popularity blossomed. After relocating to Chicago, Sykes inked a pact with Bluebird in 1943 and recorded prolifically for the RCA subsidiary with his combo, the Honeydrippers, scoring a pair of R&B hits in 1945 (covers of Cecil Gant's "I Wonder" and Joe Liggins' "The Honeydripper"). The following year, he scored one more national chart item for the parent Victor logo, the lowdown blues "Sunny Road." He also often toured and recorded with singer St. Louis Jimmy Oden, the originator of the classic "Going Down Slow." In 1951, Sykes joined Chicago's United Records, cutting more fine sides over the next couple of years. A pair of Dave Bartholomew-produced 1955 dates for Imperial in New Orleans included a rollicking version of "Sweet Home Chicago" that presaged all the covers that would surface later on. A slew of albums for Bluesville, Folkways, Crown, and Delmark kept Sykes on the shelves during the '60s (a time when European tours began to take up quite a bit of the pianist's itinerary). He settled in New Orleans during the late '60s, where he remained a local treasure until his death. Precious few pianists could boast the thundering boogie prowess of Roosevelt Sykes, and even fewer could chase away the blues with his blues as the rotund cigar-chomping 88s ace did. ~ Bill Dahl, Rovi