Obit: 'Chicago Bob' Nelson - Blues Harp

Subject: RE: Obit: 'Chicago Bob' Nelson - Blues Harp
From: Wesley S
Date: 25 Jan 13 - 02:35 PM

Here's a youtube sample

And

Rats in my kitchen

Subject: Obit: 'Chicago Bob' Nelson - Blues Harp
From: Wesley S
Date: 25 Jan 13 - 02:30 PM

Full Obit here

Robert Nelson played Chicago-style blues and sang with a Louisiana twang.Widely known as "Chicago Bob," the Louisiana native was a staple on the traditional blues scene for decades.

"Bob was very traditional," said friend Eric King. "He really stuck to the basic Chicago-style blues formula. He never got into the bands with the hot guitar pickers. It was always the blues harp and singer up front and maybe a sax player, but he was very traditional."
Blues harp — the common harmonica played with an earthy note-bending style — had been Nelson's instrument of choice since he was an 8-year-old, friends said. His father played the harp and he picked it up too. Nelson was sent to Chicago during the summers during his youth and there he came to meet blues legends like Muddy Waters, who gave him his nickname.

"He would sit in everywhere he could in Chicago," said King, who is a co-owner of the Atlanta blues club Blind Willie's. "So one day Muddy looked at him and said something like, 'You're all over Chicago, Bob. Everywhere we play, you are there.' And from that point on, he was known as 'Chicago Bob.'"

Born in Bogalusa, La., Nelson had been living in Atlanta for some time when Blind Willie's opened in 1986, said Sandra Hall, a friend and performing partner. He played the club regularly and toured the southeast U.S. and Europe, until declining health diminished his energy to perform.

Robert Lee Nelson, of Atlanta, died Jan. 17, from several health complications, including heart and kidney failure. He was 69.
A funeral is to be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Willie A. Watkins, Historic West End Chapel, which is also in charge of arrangements. Burial will follow at South-View Cemetery, Atlanta.