Fenton Robinson

Fenton Lee Robinson (September 23, 1935 – November 25, 1997) was an American blues singer and exponent of the Chicago blues guitar. In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame.

Biography Robinson was born near Greenwood, Mississippi. He left home at the age of 18 and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he recorded his first single "Tennessee Woman" in 1957. In 1959, he made his first recording of "As the Years Go Passing By", later recorded by several other blues artists. He settled in Chicago in 1962.

Robinson re-recorded the song for the critically acclaimed album Somebody Loan Me a Dime in 1974, the first of three he recorded for Alligator Records. Robinson was nominated for a Grammy Award for the second, 1977's I Hear Some Blues Downstairs,

Robinson played guitar on Larry Davis' original recording of "Texas Flood". Davis later became a guitar player, but for "Texas Flood" Robinson provided the distinctive guitar parts, with Davis on vocals and bass, keyboardist James Booker on piano, David Dean on tenor saxophone, Booker Crutchfield on baritone saxophone and an unknown drummer.

In 1969 Robinson was arrested and imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter in connection with an automobile accident. Paroled after nine months, in Rockford, Illinois. In 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Fenton Robinson at Booker Cemetery in Marks, Mississippi.

His signature song, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime", was used in the film The Blues Brothers; the song is playing on the radio when Jake (John Belushi) is being transported and paroled.

Discography Monday Morning Boogie & Blues (1972), Seventy Seven Records; Sunset Blvd Records The Getaway (1973), Seventy Seven Somebody Loan Me a Dime (1974), Alligator I Hear Some Blues Downstairs (1977), Alligator Blues In Progress (AKA Nightflight) (1984), Black Magic; Alligator Special Road (1989), Black Magic; Evidence