Fort Worth, Texas · Blues Vocalist
Robert Ealey
The Bluebird's Human Harmonica
DEC. 6, 1925 — MAR. 8, 2001
For twenty years he sang at the Blue Bird Club. Then he bought it, and sang there ten more. This site keeps his voice, his records, and the memories of everyone who was in the room.
Robert Ealey began singing in his local church at fifteen, back home in Texarkana. By twenty he'd moved to Dallas and was singing blues professionally, influenced by Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. In Fort Worth he joined the Boogie Chillun Boys and became the featured voice at the Blue Bird Club.
In 1990 he teamed up with guitarist Tone Sommer and started touring Europe, where Texas urban blues found an eager audience. Every September, his own festival filled Sundance Square with the sound he'd spent a lifetime building.
On Record
Selected Discography
1996 · Black Top Records
Turn Out the Lights
Featuring Mike Morgan, Tone Sommer, Ty Grimes, and Mark Rybiski.
1997 · Black Top Records
I Like Music When I Party
A D/FW blues session, straight from the Blue Bird's back room.
1991 · Produced by Mike Kubiak
The Lost Tapes
Remastered and available in MP3 format at AllTexasMusic.com.
In His Own Fans' Words
Memories of Robert Ealey
"There was more than sweat pouring from him — the energy he filled the room with was thicker than the smoke."
— A fan, remembering a Blue Bird show"He carried a lifetime of hard knocks, but you'd never know it from the joy on his face when he sang."
— A friend and fellow musician, in the memorial guestbookStay Connected