Robert Wilkins

Robert Timothy Wilkins was a seminal blues guitarist and vocalist. Of African American and Cherokee descent, he was born January 16, 1896, in Hernando, Mississippi, 21 miles from Memphis, Tennessee. He died May 26, 1987.

Wilkins worked in Memphis during the 1920s at the same time as Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), and Son House. He also organized a jug band to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue. Though never attaining success comparable to the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station. Like Sleepy John Estes (and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers) he recorded alone or with a single accompanist. He sometimes performed as Tim Wilkins or as Tim Oliver (his step-father's name).

His best known songs are "That's No Way To Get Along" (covered as "The Prodigal Son" by The Rolling Stones), "Rolling Stone" (covered by Muddy Waters and which inspired The Rolling Stones very name), and "Old Jim Canan's".

He became an elder of the Church of God in Christ in the 1930s and began playing gospel music with a blues feel.

The "Reverend" Robert Wilkins was rediscovered by blues enthusiasts during the 1960s blues revival, making appearances at folk festivals and recording his gospel blues for a new audience. His distinction was his versatility; he could play ragtime, blues, minstrel songs, and gospel with equal facility