Getting to Know Frank Robinson — A Life Forged in Crockett Blues
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – Crockett has a lot to offer the wider world — as a business and tourist destination, as a place to call home, even with our issues and disagreements. From Crockett’s cabin, forming the heart of the state’s oldest county — to Kenny Rogers, and of course, the blues.
Crockett will again host the Camp Street Blues Festival this year, and it’s set for April 24-25. During Saturday, April 25’s events, there will be a quieter event, but one packed with history that I hope you will not miss.
Beginning shortly after 12 p.m., Camp Street Cafe will host a viewing of a 40-minute film showing an interview with local blues legend Frank Robinson. Edited from a longer video shot long ago, Pipp Gillette was able to sit down with Robinson and chat about the people and times that forged the blues scene in Crockett.
Born in 1932, Robinson tells stories about blues musicians, the “joints” they used to haunt, how Lightning Hopkins became famous — even how Ray Charles asked Robinson’s preacher father to help him deal with some dark times and feelings. Robinson tells a fascinating tale, all while noodling on his old acoustic guitar, absentmindedly playing notes from songs he sang in the days after the Second World War.
It was a different time, Robinson working at the local sawmill, living across the street from Mary Allen College. He talks about how he would try and walk across the campus, but get stopped every few feet by another eager group of students, asking for one more quick song before he moved on.
I was proud to be asked to edit the video, although I admit I had never heard of Robinson. I was eager to help, thinking more about the best way to make an older videotape look and sound good on a big screen, than the story Robinson might tell.
By the time I had viewed the interview 20 or 30 times, Robinson was already Frank to me, a man I wish I had known. There’s no drama, no theatrics, just a humble man telling his story, probably amazed anyone would bother asking about it, much less record it for posterity.
His voice, his cadence — the way he matter-of-factly tells about a time when Crockett’s downtown was filled with businesses, life and yes, music — thank God the interview was recorded and preserved for posterity.
I hope to see you at the blues event later this month. Get some street food, enjoy those blues and gospel songs, feel your sternum hum with the low, rhythmic bass. I invite you to come out early and check out the Robinson interview. It’s like stepping in a time machine. For those of us born after those times had long before ended, it’s as close as we can get to being there, watching the Crockett blues tradition being born.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
