Hargus Melvin “Pig” Robbins

Hargus Melvin “Pig” Robbins. . , Prolific Nashville session pianist Hargus Melvin “Pig” Robbins has played on records by artists as diverse as Alan Jakson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Bob Dylan, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, Crystal Gayle, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Joan Baez, John Denver, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young, Patsy Cline, Randy Davis and Sturgill Simpson. In all, he has worked thousands of recording sessions., Born in Spring City, Tennessee, on Jan. 18, 1938, Robbins’ father was a cab driver. When he was 2 years old, he accidentally blinded himself in one eye when he fell onto a knife. By age 4, he was completely blind. At 6 years old, he was sent to the Tennessee School for the Blind in Donelson and began learning piano. Robbins was given formal instruction, but listened more closely to country pianists, including Floyd Cramer and Moon Mullican, as well as R&B and jazz pianists like Ramsey Lewis and Ray Charles. He also was influenced by the pianists he heard on African-American gospel radio shows. At the School for the Blind, Robbins cleaned the fire escapes, covering himself with dust and grime. A supervisor said that he was “dirty as a pig”, and the nickname stuck., After leaving school, he worked in Nashville, first in a photofinishing lab and then as a club pianist. He played on his first session in 1957 for the Sprouts, a rockabilly group signed to Spangle Records in Springfield, Ohio. Work became more plentiful after Nashville’s first-call pianist, Floyd Cramer, had a 1960 pop hit with “Last Date” and began touring. By the Robbins had played on his first hit, George Jones’ “White Lighting” and had made his first solo record under the name Mel Robbins for Chicago’s Chess Records. Session work was abundant in Nashville form the 1960s until the 2000s. Robbins worked more sessions than any other pianists, developing an ability to memorize melodies, chords and key changes after hearing a song only once. Other musicians would occasionally rely upon him to remember the structure of more complex songs. In February and March 1966, Robbins was brought into the sessions that resulted in Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde album. It marked the first time that he had played on songs that exceeded three minutes or songs that hadn’t been written when the session started., Although Charlie Rich and Jerry Lee Lewis were renowned as pianists, Robbins played the much-emulated piano parts on Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors” and Lewis’ “Middle Age Crazy”. He also played the very familiar piano parts on Crystal Gayle’s “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” and David Houston’s “Almost Persuaded”., Robbins continued to record occasionally under his own name. Two of his singles charted fleetingly in 1979. In 1985, he toured briefly with Neil Young’s International Harvesters, but otherwise remained a studio musician., Hargus “Pig” Robbins was named the CMA’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 1976 and 2000. In 2012, he was inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame at the same time as Connie Smith and Garth Brooks., Marker's reverse on Tennessee Music Pathways not transcribed