bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967)[1] was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr.

Born in Helena, Arkansas, he left home at an early age to become a busking musician. After a period wandering through southern Mississippi, he settled for a time in Memphis, Tennessee, where he played with local orchestras and musicians, such as the Memphis Jug Band. A particular influence during this period was Houston Stackhouse, from whom he learned to play slide guitar and with whom he performed on the radio in Jackson, Mississippi.

After further travels through Mississippi, he found it advisable to take his mother's name and, as Robert Lee McCoy, moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in the mid-1930s.[2] Local musicians with whom he played included Henry Townsend, Big Joe Williams, and Sonny Boy Williamson. This led to two recording dates in 1937, the four musicians recording together at the Victor Records studio in Aurora, Illinois, as well as recordings under his own name, including "Prowling Night-Hawk" (recorded 5 May 1937), from which he was to take his later pseudonym. These sessions led to Chicago blues careers for the other musicians, though not for McCoy, who continued his rambling life, playing and recording (for Victor/Bluebird Records and Decca Records) solo and with various other musicians, under various names. Kansas City Red was his drummer from the early 1940s to around 1946.[3] He recorded Kansas City Red’s song "The Moon Is Rising".[4]

McCoy became a familiar voice on local radio stations. Then Robert Lee McCoy disappeared. Within a few years, he resurfaced as the electric slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk and began recording for Aristocrat and Chess Records, the latter of which was also Muddy Waters's label. In 1949 and 1950, the two men's styles were close enough that they were in competition for promotional activity. Waters was the more marketable commodity, being more reliable and a more confident stage communicator, and thus received the attention. Nighthawk continued to perform and record, taking up with United Records and States Records 1951 and 1952, but did not achieve great commercial success.

In 1963, Nighthawk was rediscovered busking in Chicago, and this led to further recording sessions and club dates and to his return to Arkansas, where he performed on the radio program King Biscuit Time, on KFFA. He continued giving live performances on Chicago's Maxwell Street until 1964.[2]

He had a stroke followed by a heart attack and died of heart failure[1] at his home in Helena. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, in Helena.
Robert Nighthawk-Black Angel Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOuIwYyOeos
Robert Nighthawk - I Need Love So Bad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1QaMFTlr7s
Robert Nighthawk - I'm gettin' tired (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvRc51SG2F8
Robert Nighthawk - Kansas City Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kaEEqyHkPo
Robert Nighthawk-The Time Have Come
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mexjpzDTrXU
Robert Nighthawk -- Mama Talk to Your Daughter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHnCvRWmbMs
Robert Nighthawk-Down the Line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXvaqae9eK0
Robert Nighthawk Eli's Place 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMI5KHPFDns
67. Robert Nighthawk - Back Off Jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGG3YKWhXvE
Robert Nighthawk Slide Guitar Style - Live on Maxwell Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFgFNajJYnY
Robert Nighthawk Sweet Little Angel Bharath Rajkumar, Junior Watson, Fred Kaplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjp3rMLNYsU
Robert Nighthawk-Goin' Down To Eli's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqD6eed9x-0
Robert Nighthawk - Maxwell Street Medley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKDbgmT70U
Cheating and Lying Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwaRMv7KPLQ
Robert Nighthawk - Crying Won't Help You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqAhuH_DPog
Robert Nighthawk - Bricks In My Pillow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtmYWyOWXF8
You Missed a Good Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT6Dr32X5dk
Handsome Lover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYP_RJSUX1Q
Six Three O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GLIejIePkA
Honey Hush
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY3rh5SqAEw

hippi Loc: Sedalia MO

this cat was awsome

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

That he was.