Roosevelt Sykes (1906 – 1983) was an American blues musician also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player whose rollicking thundering boogie was highly influential. Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on the road playing piano with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden. [wikipedia]