Bobo Jenkins was an American Detroit blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.
15 Facts About Bobo Jenkins
1.
2.
Bobo Jenkins built and set up his own recording studio and record label in Detroit.
3.
Bobo Jenkins was born John Pickens Jenkins in Forkland, Alabama.
4.
Bobo Jenkins left home before the age of 12, and arrived in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Bobo Jenkins had a wife at the age of 14, the first of ten marriages.
6.
Bobo Jenkins took casual work in the Mississippi Delta for several years and then enrolled in the United States Army.
7.
Bobo Jenkins wrote the politically themed "Democrat Blues", about the US Election Day in 1952, expressing his unease about Dwight D Eisenhower becoming the first Republican in the White House in almost twenty years.
8.
Bobo Jenkins met and played alongside Sonny Boy Williamson II, before constructing his own recording studio.
9.
Bobo Jenkins recorded mainly local musicians, including James "Little Daddy" Walton, Little Junior Cannady, Chubby Martin and Syl Foreman.
10.
Bobo Jenkins went on to promote the first Detroit Blues Festival, in 1972.
11.
Bobo Jenkins was one of the headline acts in the Detroit blues review part of the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.
12.
In 1974, Bobo Jenkins wrote another song with political overtones, "Watergate Blues," which was included on his next album, Here I Am a Fool in Love Again.
13.
In 1976 Bobo Jenkins performed at the Smithsonian Institution, as part of the celebrations marking the United States Bicentennial.
14.
In 1982, Bobo Jenkins went to Europe with the American Living Blues Festival tour, but because of poor health he returned home after his first concert.
15.
Bobo Jenkins died in Detroit after a long illness in August 1984, at the age of 68.