Robert Lucas

West Coast vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Robert Lucas established his presence in blues circles following the 1990 release of his self-produced debut cassette Across the River, which earned widespread praise. Residing in Long Beach, California, he issued recordings as a solo performer on the Audioquest imprint based in San Clemente while also performing intermittently with the storied boogie blues ensemble Canned Heat beginning in 1994, where he handled vocals along with bottleneck guitar and harmonica.

Born into a middle-class household in Long Beach, Lucas developed a serious interest in blues-rock around age fourteen or fifteen. He first took up guitar under the influence of Jimi Hendrix yet soon abandoned the instrument after deciding his hands were too small, turning instead to harmonica and absorbing the work of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers before immersing himself in foundational recordings by Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson, George "Harmonica" Smith, Snooky Pryor, and James Cotton. At seventeen he acquired a National Steel guitar from a co-worker at the Long Beach Arena and began studying with guitarist Bernie Pearl, eventually joining Pearl's band on harmonica and supporting such West Coast blues figures as Big Joe Turner, George Smith, Pee Wee Creighton, Lowell Fulson, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, and Percy Mayfield. He refined his singing and instrumental skills over several years both with Pearl's group and independently before forming Luke & the Locomotives in 1986.

A favorable review of the Across the River cassette in a Los Angeles newspaper propelled Lucas onto the national touring circuit; an Audioquest warehouse employee attended one of his performances at a Los Angeles sushi bar and alerted the label president, who heard Lucas perform that same evening. Demonstrating versatility across harmonica, guitar, vocals, and songwriting, he recorded the solo album Usin' Man Blues for Audioquest and followed it with the band effort Luke and the Locomotives. His Audioquest output maintained a raw, gritty character and featured only a limited number of originals, reinterpreting such standards as Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" and John Lee Hooker's "Meet Me in the Bottom" through his distinctive vocal and instrumental approach.

While honoring the blues tradition, Lucas also developed a personal vocal and slide guitar idiom that surfaced throughout his Audioquest releases—Luke and the Locomotives, Usin' Man Blues, Built for Comfort, Layaway, and Completely Blue—all issued during the 1990s—as well as on later Canned Heat albums appearing on the Ruf and Fuel 2000 labels. Robert Lucas died of a drug overdose in Long Beach on November 23, 2008.