1973
Live at the New Bluebird Nightclub
Co-produced by T-Bone Burnett; drummer Mike Buck on the session.
ADMIT ONE
Church Pews to Juke Joints
Robert Daniel Ealey was born December 6, 1925, in Texarkana, Texas. Long before anyone called him a bluesman, he was singing in a quartet at his church as a teenager — the same voice that would later carry across three decades of Fort Worth nightclubs got its start in a pew.
He started singing professionally at twenty, then put that career on hold to serve in the Army during World War II. When he came home, Ealey headed for Dallas in 1951 before settling into the city that would define him: Fort Worth.
The Boogie Chillun Boys
In Fort Worth, Ealey teamed up with guitarist U.P. Wilson to form a duo called the Boogie Chillun Boys. Their sound left a mark on the local scene — fellow Texas singer and guitarist Ray Sharpe counted them among his own influences.
The Bluebird Club was Ealey's musical home for more than thirty years — he ended up co-owning the place from 1977 to 1989.
Home at the Bluebird
Whatever else changed, the Bluebird Club stayed constant. Ealey held court there for over three decades, eventually taking an ownership stake in it. It's where he built the bands that carried his name: the Five Careless Lovers, the Juke Jumpers, and later, on the road, a rotating cast of Texas blues players.
His 1973 live record, Live at the New Bluebird Nightclub, credited to Robert Ealey and the Five Careless Lovers, captured that room's energy — drummer Mike Buck was on the session, and the album was co-produced by a young T-Bone Burnett.
Wider Ears, Later Years
By the 1990s, Ealey and guitarist Tone Sommer were taking the sound further afield, touring the U.S. and Europe and reaching new listeners partly through television advertising work. His 1996 album Turn Out the Lights, released on Black Top Records with Mike Morgan and Sommer on guitar, and its 1997 follow-up, I Like Music When I Party, marked the fullest reach of his career.
Last Set
Robert Ealey died in Fort Worth on March 8, 2001, at seventy-five, from complications following a car accident the previous December. He was laid to rest with military honors at the Dallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery. A posthumous compilation, Blues That Time Forgot, followed in 2003, and in 2020 writer Joe Nick Patoski told his fuller story in the book Robert Ealey and His Five Careless Lovers.
A Life, In Order
- 1925
Born December 6 in Texarkana, Texas.
- 1945
Begins singing professionally at age twenty, then serves in the U.S. Army during World War II.
- 1951
Moves to Dallas, later settling in Fort Worth; forms the Boogie Chillun Boys with U.P. Wilson.
- 1973
Releases Live at the New Bluebird Nightclub with the Five Careless Lovers.
- 1977–1989
Co-owns the Bluebird Club, his musical base for more than thirty years.
- 1996–1997
Releases Turn Out the Lights and I Like Music When I Party on Black Top Records; tours the U.S. and Europe.
- 2001
Dies March 8 in Fort Worth; buried with military honors at Dallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery.
- 2020
Subject of Joe Nick Patoski's biography, Robert Ealey and His Five Careless Lovers.
