Blues traveler: Robert Sampson

Blues traveler: Robert Sampson
January 09, 2010
GREG OLSON
Journal-Courier

rom his earliest days, Robert Sampson recalls that it was in blues music that he found his voice.

“Living in East St. Louis, I’ve lived the blues,” said Sampson, a professional musician who has resided in Jacksonville for nine years.

His childhood was anything but idyllic. He lived in 17 foster homes between the ages of six months and 9. “To be able to play and sing good blues a person has to have experienced blue moments like I did,” Sampson said.

Sampson’s ability to share his difficult experiences through music has earned him a third consecutive trip to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Jan. 21-23. The event, now in its 26th year, is billed as the “premier blues competition in the world,” with musicians vying for cash, prizes and industry recognition.

In 2009, 100 bands and 60 solo/duo acts from around the world entered, filling the clubs up and down historic Beale Street in Memphis for the semifinals on Thursday and Friday and the finals at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. Event organizers anticipate a similar number of blues performers this month.

Sampson, who plays several different instruments, will be competing as a solo artist this year.

“I’m really excited to be going for a third time,” he said. “I was really shocked to win the opportunity to go for a third time.” Sampson won a regional solo competition at the Illinois Central Blues Club’s “Blues Challenge” in Springfield Aug. 29, earning him a ticket to the Memphis event.

“I always like to say that’s where the big boys play,” Sampson said. “If you can impress the musicians who play on Beale Street [in Memphis], it can cause your career to blossom.”

Sampson said he will take a list of songs onto the stage in Memphis, “but I wind up deviating from the set list because I read the audience and can sense what they want to hear. I just go up there and have fun and do my best. I think what makes me different from other musicians is my spontaneity.”

In 2008, Sampson made it to the final six as a solo artist at the International Blues Challenge. He is the only representative of the Illinois Central Blues Club to ever make the finals.

“It’s just a great honor for me to be chosen,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I’ve gotten to do three years in a row.”

Sampson, 29, a 2001 graduate of the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, said he has been drawn to music since he was young.

“But since I came to Jacksonville to live nine years ago, I have been more active in blues music than ever before,” he said. Among his blues heroes are B.B. King and Willie Dixon.

“The thing I appreciate the most about them is how hard they worked to get where they’re at, musically and professionally,” Sampson said.

Still, Sampson listens to a wide variety of music. His tastes range from the big band sounds of the 1930s and ’40s to classic rock from the 1950s and ’60s.

“What I love about the ’50s and ’60s rock music is the energy of the music,” he said. “One musician, Little Richard, defines the energy of the music from the era of the ’50s, especially. I like good energy in a song.”

And those who have seen and heard Sampson play can attest to his affinity for the up-tempo stylings of such rock ’n roll pioneers as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis.

“Robert is an amazing and exciting artist,” said Rich Hohmann of Jacksonville, who performed with Sampson as a member of the Jacksonville-based blues band, Pleasure Chest, at last year’s International Blues Challenge. “His energy comes through in every performance. His deep love of the music is readily apparent. It’s fun to watch him play and it’s a pleasure to play with him.”

Hohmann also recognizes the significance of being able to advance to the International Blues Challenge.
“It is so very unusual to have such talent in Robert Sampson for one to be able to compete in this prestigious international venue,” Hohmann said.

“Participation alone is a lifetime honor, and to go on to the finals is something reserved only for the very few that qualify. Robert has a great variety in his delivery, in that he incorporates the keyboard, the guitar, harmonica, slide guitar into his act — not all in the same song — as the vehicle for a professional show, indeed.”

In addition to singing, Sampson is a self-taught musician who plays the piano, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, saxophone, drums and banjo.

“I’ve learned to play all the instruments on my own,” he said. “I just enjoy learning new instruments.”
Sampson, who writes many of his own songs, plays about every weekend at various locations in the greater Jacksonville area, including wineries, private parties and clubs.

“I play everything from classic country to oldies from the ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “I think that’s what makes a good musician. They don’t rope themselves into one particular genre of music.”
Sampson hopes his music will ultimately reach the masses. “Eventually, I want to be known worldwide as a musician,” he said.

Friends will host a “Memphis Sendoff” for him from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Hamilton’s in downtown Jacksonville. There will be a $5 admission fee and guests will be able to hear Sampson perform his Memphis blues act, as well as be entertained by Sampson and some of his musical friends during the event. There will also be a cash bar and a 50/50 drawing.

“We are holding this event to help Robert defray some of his costs for going to Memphis,” Hohmann said.


HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS

Participants in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis are divided into groups of about 10 acts each and are assigned a bar or nightclub, where the bands or solo acts will perform in a randomly drawn order for two nights.

Each act gets 25 minutes to perform. The venue remains the same, but the panel of judges changes from night to night. The total scores of the two sets of judges are weighted and tallied, and the act with the highest score from two nights of performances advances to the finals. Only first-place winners from each venue advance.


Robert Sampson’s top “must-hear” blues musicians and Top 5 blues songs:

• Willie Dixon
• B.B. King
• Eric Clapton
• Robert Johnson
• Ray Charles

1. “Crossroad Blues” by Robert Johnson
2. “The Mess Around” by Ray Charles
3. “Every Day I Have the Blues” by B.B. King
4. “Sweet Home Chicago” by the Blues Brothers
5. “Sinners Prayer” by B.B. King and Ray Charles