Electric Chair Blues - Robert “Guitar“ Welch

“Yeah—he said, ’Wonder why it’s people cut out the light one hour at night. Because the current—if they’d cut out the lights—it’d be more stronger for the ’lectric chair to kill the man. That’d come about one o’clock at night.“ Lightnin’ Hopkins reminiscing of Blind Lemon Jefferson From the Angola Penitentiary recordings by Harry Oster - we find a great many deep blues and other music of the imprisoned. ...whilst the main result of the recordings was the career of Robert Pete Williams, another musician worthy of appreciation is Robert Welch, called “Guitar“ and “King of the Blues“ by the other convicts, he was born in Memphis in 1896. He learned from the records of Lonnie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson and played in bands starting in the late 30’s ... I’m not sure what happened to him, but I believe he made further recordings with Robert Pete Williams (Mississippi Heavy Water Blues) and so presumably was released from prison