Robert Covington’s Soul is at Home in a Suburban Ranch

Blues Don’t Fade on City’s Collar

Robert Covington’s Soul is at Home in a Suburban Ranch

By Dan Kening - 1992

Schaumburg may seem like an unlikely home base for one of Chicago's most in-demand blues singers, but Robert Covington is not your average bluesman.

A native of Yazoo County, Mississippi—the birthplace of such blues icons as Skip James, Tommy McClennan and Robert Petway—he came north to Chicago in the mid-1960s and has lived in the northwest suburbs for the last 15 years.

Often performing seven nights a week in city and suburban clubs either with the house band at Kingston Mines in Lincoln Park, with the group Mississippi Heat, or with his own band, which bears his name, Covington is one of the few blues drummers who's successfully been able to come out from behind the drums and achieve frontman status. With a buttery baritone that recalls such classic blues singers as Bobby "Blue" Bland and Little Milton, there was no way that Robert Covington was going to remain hidden behind the drums forever.

Working the crowd on a recent Wednesday night at Kingston Mines, decked out in a three-piece suit and fedora, his declamatory vocal style on both originals and blues classics like Willie Dixon's "1 Just Want to Make Love to You" virtually lights up the room. On his own "Better Watch Your Step," Covington goes into an extended rap about his woman cheating on him. "1 know you weren't out with your best girlfriend last night 'cause she was with me!" It's a clever lyrical turnaround typical of Covington's approach to his music: "Don't just sing a song—tell a story."

"That man can sing some good blues," said octogenarian blues piano legend Sunnyland Slim, with whom Covington performs on drums and vocals Sundays at B.L.U.E.S. on Chicago's North Side, "He's a good drummer and a good man—he's excellent."

It should be noted that Sunnyland, who helped launch the careers of such blues giants as Waters and Wolf, is notoriously parsimonious with his praise. An-other Covington booster is Doc Pellegrino, owner of Kingston Mines, where Covington performs five nights a week.

"Robert puts a lot of heart and soul into what he's singing, and when you're in the audience it's as if he's singing just to you," he said. "And the people really seem to love him."

Indeed, at the end of his set Covington is surrounded by both new and old fans, all waiting to pay their compliments.

"Sometimes onstage you have such a feeling of control, like you have the audience in the palm of your hand," said Covington after the show. "It's like you can't do or say anything wrong."

Covington lives in a neat-as-a-pin ranch house just off Roselle Road that he shares with his wife, Ernestine, and daughter, Tiffany, a junior at Schaumburg High School. A son, Keifer, a senior majoring in criminal law at Southern Illinois University, worked for the Schaumburg Police Department as a bicycle patrolman this past summer.

Wearing a blue T-shirt and dark glasses, Covington's gravelly voice reveals that he's recently climbed out of bed, having worked until 4 a.m. the previous night at King-ston Mines, No overt signs that a musician lives there are obvious. In fact, the decor bears the distinct signs of Ernestine's feminine touch.

Covington credits his wife, affectionately known as Ernie, with his move to suburbia. He finds the relative peacefulness of suburban life an antidote to the boisterousness of his work world.

"I like how serene it is here compared to the city, said Covington, gazing out through the glass patio door to his well-manicured backyard. "Before that I lived all over the city of Chicago—north, south, east and west. In the city, no matter what time of the day or night it is there's always a bunch of people hanging out on the street.  \

"Ernie Covington, who owns the Schaumburg resale-consignment shop Next To Nothing near their home, offers a portrait of the bluesman as homebody.

"Robert likes to cook, and he's a good one," she said. "His specialty is seafood, especially fried fish. I know that when I come home from work we're going to eat fish nearly every day. The only time I can get the fish smell out of the house is when he goes on tour to Europe.

"He also likes cleaning the house. When he's not working he's really a homebody," she added. "He's not into hanging out like many musicians are. He'd rather be at home watching videos."

Covington's route to suburbia has been an interesting one. Born in Yazoo City, Miss., 50 years ago, he spent three years at what is now Alcorn State University. But despite his mother's desire for him to be a teacher and his own interest in journalism, music eventually won out. More specifically, when the bandleader for rhythm and blues kingpin Big Joe Turner put out a call that they needed a drummer for some Mississippi shows, Covington answered the call.

"I was no Gene Krupa back then, but I got pretty good playing drums in college," lie said.

With such hits as "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Honey Hush" to his credit, Turner was a certified legend, a larger-than-life figure with a booming voice. Covington's first professional gig was one he'll never forget.

"We're all up onstage at the nightclub waiting for him to come on, and I was real nervous because I still hadn't met him," said Covington. "You see, he never came to rehearsals. Finally he comes waddling through the crowd to get to the stage and I could immediately see that he was stone drunk. When he finally got on-stage, he was weaving and rocking so much that he finally just tipped over the front of the stage and fell right off it. Bottles and glasses were flying all over, the audience was screaming, and I started laughing. I couldn't help it. The bandleader fined me $25 for laughing, and I was only making $15 a night."

Such was Covington's initiation into show business. Later he led his own band in Mississippi, com-ing north to Chicago in 1965 to escape an ill-fated first marriage. Knowing no other musicians in Chicago, it took him awhile to establish himself in the blues hierarchy, so he worked the second shift at factory jobs to pay the rent.

"I started to sit in at juke joints on the South and West Sides when I got off work," he said. "I used to go into some of the most danger-Otis places you ever saw, but that was where you found the real low-down blues."

Gradually he worked his way up in Chicago's insular blues scene, playing both on stage and in the recording studio with a who's who of blues stars that includes Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Fenton Robinson and James Cot-ton. By the mid-1970s he was a fixture behind the drums at the city's North Side blues clubs.

Covington's secret weapon was a singing voice that was often better than that of the people he backed up. The title of Covington's 1988 album on the local Red Beans record label, "The Golden Voice of Robert Covington," is no brag. His longstanding Sunday night gig with Sunnyland Slim aside, it's rare these days that you'll find Covington behind a drum kit. Now he's a legitimate frontman.

"I recognized the quality of his entertaining ability, and it was get-ting lost behind the drums," said Kingston Mines' Pellegrino, whom Covington credits with helping establish him as a singer who also plays drums, as opposed to a drummer who sings. "I convinced him to come out from behind the drums, and now I think he's really a great entertainer."

"No matter how good you are, people always look at drummers as just sidemen," said Covington. "I figured I'd wait until it was my time, and now it is my time."

There's no doubt that Covington is serious about his career. With his steady gig at Kingston Mines, work with Sunnyland Slim and occasional dates with Mississippi Heat at clubs like Slice of Chicago in Palatine, Covington is perhaps the hardest-working man on the blues scene.

"The thing is, I remember those lean years when I first came to Chicago and was wishing for work," he said. "So now I'm sort of superstitious about turning work down. In this business it's ei-ther feast or famine. And luckily right now I'm feasting."

"Robert lives for his career," said wife Ernie. "The only time I've seen him really upset is when he had kidney problems five years ago and was on dialysis. His doctors told him he had to give up playing music, but he's tough. He really loves what he's doing. If he had to choose between giving up his music or giving up me, I'm not sure which he would choose."

After his kidneys failed as a result of complications of high blood pressure, Covington had a kidney transplant. He says that his brush with death totally changed his outlook on life.

"Before that I used to take life for granted," he said. "I just didn't give a damn. But now I have a sense of purpose, so 1 try to make every day count and be meaningful. I try to instill that in my kids, that there are no shortcuts in life. We were all put here for a reason and we should find the best way to make things happen for our-selves."

One place where Covington is especially in demand these days is in Europe. Just back from his third European tour this year alone, Covington, like many Chicago blues musicians, relishes his jaunts overseas.

"There's a big, big market for blues and jazz in Europe," he said. "The people respect the blues so much more there, especially traditional blues. They know who you recorded with, who you played with, everything you've ever done. They treat you like a king.

"You know, I've come a long way, and I'm proud of what I've accomplished. My mother and father never left Mississippi, nor did a lot of the friends I grew up with. I wish they could have seen sonic of the places I've been to and met some of the people I've met. Every time in an airplane flying off to Europe I think to myself, 'Damn, not bad for a country boy from Mississippi!'"

In January 17, 1996, Covington succumbed to complications from diabetes.

Chicago Tribune, Feb 16, 1996.

Henry Stuckey's Grave

The Grave of Henry Stuckey
Creator of the Bentonia Blues

Henry Stuckey, of Satartia, was playing a distinctive kind of music during the early 1900s that paved the way for a school known today as "Bentonia Blues." According to David Evans, a devotee of blues and professor of anthropology at California State University, the "Bentonia Blues" guitarists use mainly an open D minor tuning and an intricate picking style. The singing covers a wide range with a tendency to begin high, then "tumble" to a lower final pitch.

The military marker of Henry Stuckey at
Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Bentonia, Yazoo County, Mississippi

As these musicians traded ideas in the semi-isolated area of Bentonia, James and Owens perfected the style by adding dark, introspective lyrics. With his overwhelming personality coming through his recordings, James created a haunting and unique sound that continues to influence blues and folk music today. Though James died in 1969 and Owens in 1997, and Bud Spires in 2014, this local style is preserved in the playing of Jimmy "Duck" Holmes.

Bentonia's Blue Front Cafe is where the famous Yazoo blues had its beginning

Yazoo County Blues, a Well-Kept Secret (2 of 3)

Bentonia's Blue Front Cafe is where the famous Yazoo blues began

By The Rev. Ken Cook Special to The Yazoo Herald 1999

Click HERE to read Part 1

THE BLUE FRONT CAFE in Bentonia is a historic focal point for blues enthusiasts. Owner Jimmy Holmes, standing right, says hardly a week goes by that he doesn't have visitors and telephone calls from Los Angeles, New York, or cities around the world where blues lovers want to found out all they can about the roots of Mississippi Delta—and Yazoo County—blues. Enjoying a Sunday afternoon on the Blue Front porch are Joe Louis Harris and his son, Terrell, of Bentonia.

By the time Bentonia's Skip James had recorded his first songs in 1931, the Depression had pushed record company executives to establish two policies: (A) blues singers would be men, not women, and (B) blues music would be performed by and marketed to blacks--not whites.

The first notable hit by a blues singer had been Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" of 1920, which sold 75,000 copies in its first month. The other early stars had included "Ma" Rainey and Bessie Smith, who traveled the vaudeville circuits with full jazz bands; Bessie was accompanied in the studio by the likes of Louis Armstrong on cornet, Fletch Henderson on piano, and Benny Goodman on clarinet.

Meanwhile, Meridian Jimmie Rodgers and his early imitators, including Gene Autry, sang "T. B. Blues" and "In the Jailhouse Now, No. 2." Due to the "race record" policy Rodgers and Autry would become "country musicians" and stick to tunes like "Waiting for a Train" and "Back in the Saddle Again." In order to cut costs and simplify marketing, the search was on for individual black men who played guitars and sang.

Mary Johnson (Smith) of Eden, MS

So Mary Johnson (born Mary Smith about 1900 in Eden) was fortunate to be able to record at the Paramount Studios in 1930.

She is known to be the author of at least ten tunes; as well, it seems likely that she wrote the most widely recorded blues song, "Baby Please Don't Go." Big Joe Williams, first to record this tune on December 12, 1941, testified that Mary was the source of this blues song which has seen over 200 versions.

Only two of her songs are still available. Vol. 11 of Rhino's Blues Masters: Classic Blues Women will give the listener a chance to hear Mamie Smith, "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Mary Johnson, singing her "Barrel House Flat Blues".

The little that is known about either Tommy McClennan, "born near Yazoo City" April 8, 1908, or Robert Petway, "born near Yazoo City," comes from the testimony of Big Bill Broonzy, the first Mississippi bluesman to record.

McClennan's 42 songs for a Chicago recording firm are all available on the two CD set Tommy McClennan, The Bluebird Recordings, 1939-1942.

Petway’s 14 songs recorded in 1941 and 1942 can be found on Mississippi Blues by the Wolf label, Vienna Austria, an indication of the popularity of blues music in Europe. Both McClennan and Petway are capable of playing their acoustic guitars fast and loud.

Both sing with great enthusiasm, often laughing. McClennan's best known songs are "Bottle It Up and Go" and "Cross Cut Saw." Petway was a trend setter. His "Catfish Blues" was reworked by Muddy Waters for his 1950 breakthrough "Rollin' Stone," which, in turn, was to influence some British rockers so much that they named their band for this take on Petway's song.

Many versions of "Catfish" are currently available. Likewise, Petway's "My Baby Left Me" was revised by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup; this revision was then copied by Elvis Presley in 1956 and became a hit. "My baby left me, never said a word..." Perhaps the reader remembers a version by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elton John or John Lennon. McClennan and Petway were both essentially "country bluesmen" like Skip James…

America was starting to come out of the Depression due to the arms buildup and World War II; the producers in Chicago could afford to have major Bluebird artists accompanied by an upright bass, and sometimes, a rhythm guitarist. The Chicago blues band, finally realized by Muddy Waters and associates around 1950, was slowly developing.

The Yazoo County Blues--A Three-Part Series Blues enthusiasts come to Yazoo County, especially to the town of Bentonia, in search of the Yazoo County Blues and the artists, like Skip James, who helped make the Blues what they are today. This three-part series is running consecutive Wednesdays in December. Don't miss the last article

Next week: the Yazoo blues spreads worldwide 

Yazoo County Blues, a Well-Kept Secret

Yazoo County Blues, a Well-Kept Secret (1 of 3)

By The Rev. Ken Cook Special to The Yazoo Herald - December 1999

[In December 1999, The Yazoo herald ran a series of three articles on the blues of Yazoo County, written by Ken Cook, the son of Ida Johnston Cook and the grandson of Luther D. and Sallie Johnston in the Scotland community. He and his wife, Margie, and their children, Abbi and Phil, live in Abington, PA. An Episcopal priest, he is associate rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Huntingdon Valley, PA (a northern suburb of Philadelphia). His relatives in Yazoo City include his aunt, Margaret Johnston and his cousins, John and Sally (Johnston) Davis, Garry and Elaine (Johnston) Roark and Robbie and Margaret (Davis) Yerger. Other Mississippi relatives live throughout the Jackson area and in Tupelo and Ocean Springs. Most of his best, early memories focus on being with his mother's large family in Yazoo County at Christmas or for ten days each summer. His interest in blues music began when he first heard Howlin' Wolf sing "Highway 49." Studying the blues functioned both as a hobby and as a way of keeping in touch with his own Southern roots.] 

During the summer of 1998 Vanguard Records released a new compact disc (CD) entitled Blues from the Delta.  Composed of 20 songs written and performed by the legendary Skip James as early as 1931 - but most of the songs date from the mid to late 1960s. This collection has been painstakingly remastered in the studio and includes two previously unreleased songs.

The artwork and notes on the back of the packaging proclaim Skip James as the "Founder of the Bentonia school of Delta blues."

Other CDs featuring the work of this Yazoo County bluesman include Skip James - Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers, the Yazoo Records' The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James and 50 Years - Mississippi Blues in Bentonia.

Nehemiah Curtis James was born on June 9, 1902 in Yazoo County. Was he born in Bentonia or Yazoo City?

His biographer, Stephen Calt, working from hours of taped interviews with Skip, is certain that James was born at the African American Hospital in Yazoo City and raised on the Whitehead plantation near Bentonia.

Around 1917 James began to learn the guitar from a popular local entertainer, Henry Stuckey of Satartia. Later he began to study the violin and piano as well.

Working as a laborer and musician, Skip got his break by means of a 1931 audition with H. C. Speir, a talent scout for Paramount, at his Jackson music store. This resulted in a trip to Grafton, Wisconsin.

The Depression largely destroyed the recording industry, and James wandered throughout the South during much of his life.

Sick--it would turn out to be cancer--he was “rediscovered” by young blues enthusiasts at a hospital at Tunica in 1964.

Within a few weeks, he was performing again, this time at the Newport (RI) Folk Festival.

Two years later the English "super group" (with Eric Clapton), recorded a loose rock version of Skip's I'm So Glad, drawing international attention to this Mississippi native.

He toured widely throughout the United States (and Europe in 1967), while recording ten albums. He died in 1969 and is buried in Merlon Memorial Park, suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his gravestone being donated by admirers, including Clapton.

Skip James' music provides a classic example of what blues is all about, even though it is somewhat atypical. Singing in a near-falsetto, he usually sounds all alone as he laments the woes of his youth (Hard Luck Child) or his broken marriage (Devil Got My Woman).

But a wry sense of humor seems to lurk behind many of the songs (if You Haven't Any Hay, Get on Down the Road).

Perhaps due to the influence of his father, a late-in-life pastor, he performs first-rate gospel tunes: Jesus Is a Mighty Good Leader. His complicated guitar solos sound eerily like 1940s field recordings from West Africa, while his stop-and-go piano work seems downright Celtic.

His Little Cow and Calf Is Gonna Die Blues (1931) would spawn themes which his peers would explore within a faithful but expanding tradition: Milkcow Blues (Kokomo Arnold, 1934), Milkcow's Calf Blues (Robert Johnson, 1937), and Milkcow Blues Boogie (Elvis Presley, 1954).

Yazoo County is home to at least nine other recorded blues musicians. In the next two parts of this series, we will briefly consider them.

For further reading, consider Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Paul Trynka's Portrait of the Blues (which includes photos from Yazoo County) and Stephen Calt's I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues. 

The Yazoo County Blues--A Three-Part Series Blues enthusiasts come to Yazoo County, especially to the town of Bentonia, in search of the Yazoo County Blues and the artists, like Skip James, who helped make the Blues what they are today. This three-part series will run consecutive Wednesdays in December. Don't miss them! 

Part 2: the Blue Front Cafe, a Blues icon.