Dee Robinson has been a truck loader, a janitor, worked in a cabinet making shop, worked in a big box store, and has an adult son and grandchildren.

Dee grew up around music. His grandfather played, his father played, and Dee noodled as a youngster, but at some point he decided to teach himself to play guitar, so he did. He also taught himself to play the banjo. The result is this record Dee from Decatur a collection of traditional music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is Blues roots music from which sprang Jazz, Rock’n’roll, Disco, Hip Hop, House; all the contemporary music we listen to is informed by this music, and it comes from Black people with more recent ties to our common human African ancestry than those of us whose African ancestry is more ancient. As white supremacists continue their campaign to erase the real history of the United States, this music reminds us of the history of African Americans by remembering Reconstruction and Jim Crow and more.

Dee’s playing is reminiscent of Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, “Mississippi” John Hurt, and others. His renditions may seem simple but they are complex, timeless, with the flavor of times gone by.

Music by: Dee Robinson

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