By the mid 50s 10-year-old Bobby was touring with his brothers on the midwest gospel circuit as The Womack Brothers, along with Naomi on organ and Friendly Sr. Because Bobby was left-handed, he flipped his guitar upside-down to play, not knowing that the guitar could have been restrung to accommodate a left-handed player. He couldn't believe how good I had got and he'd been real selfish holding on to that guitar for himself." Soon afterwards, Friendly bought guitars for all five of his sons. Every lick I knew and then some I didn't. Even with one string short, I played classical music, soul, country and western, and rock'n'roll. "Man, I played Andres Segovia, Elmore James and BB King. After Friendly deduced that Bobby (who was missing a shoelace) had broken the string, he offered Bobby the chance to play the guitar for him in lieu of a whipping. One night, eight-year-old Bobby broke a guitar string, then tried to replace the string with a shoelace. Their father repeatedly ordered his sons to not touch his guitar while he was away, yet all five brothers regularly played it while their father was at work. Raised Baptist, their mother played the organ for the church choir, and their father was a steelworker, part-time minister, and musician who played the guitar and also sang gospel. They all grew up in the Cleveland slums, so poor that the family would fish pig snouts out of the local supermarket's trash. and Curtis were the older brothers, Harry and Cecil were his younger brothers. Robert Dwayne Womack was born in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood, near East 85th Street and Quincy Avenue, to Naomi Womack and Friendly Womack, Bobby was the third of five brothers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |