The music of Roosevelt Sykes demolishes the notion that blues is too depressing to enjoy.
His romping boogies and risqué lyrics such as Dirty mother, Ice cream freezer, and Peeping Tom characterize his monumental contributions to the blues idiom; he was also responsible for the influential pieces 44 blues, Driving wheel, and Night time is the right time, and his rollicking version of Sweet home Chicago presaged all the covers that would surface later on.
This according to “Roosevelt Sykes could play those 88s” (The African American Registry, 2006).
Today would have been Sykes’s 110 birthday! Below, his signature song The honeydripper.
