Robert, Johnny Shines & Calvin Frazier Head Up Highway 51

1938 – Robert, Johnny Shines and Calvin Frazier head up Highway 51 to Chicago, Decateur, Illinois, then on to Detroit (where they hook up with Big Maceo Merriweather and with Elder Clarence Leslie Morton, Sr. The first Black minister to conduct a radio broadcast on Windsor’s CKLW, Elder Morton and his Radio Chorus aired twice weekly beginning in 1936. They play on the radio and in personal appearances with Bishop Morton). They then head to New Jersey and New York, where Robert tries to get on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show. They return through St. Louis and Memphis. In (51) Belzoni, Mississippi Robert allegedly appears with his own band (a piano player and drummer who has Robert Johnson printed in black letters on his drum head).