Ronnie Lovejoy Sr. died 22 years ago but his songs live on.
Two years before Lovejoy’s 2001 death, the world discovered through his recording of “ Sho’ Wasn’t Me” what many in the Southeast and his native Wetumpka already knew — he could play and sing the blues.
“That song really turned the tables,” Lovejoy told the British magazine Juke Blues. “Everybody seems to like it.”
Latrice Sanders and others were inspired to host the Love Conquers All Blues and Jazz Festival to recognize Lovejoy’s life and music.
“He is an unsung hero in this community,” Sanders said. “He was a well-known blues singer from the Level community. After he died, nobody did anything to honor him. We finally are getting together to honor him.”
Sanders is helping organize the festival in the same community Lovejoy grew up in. The festival is from 1 to 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Level Park on South Opothleohola Street. Music starts about 3 p.m.
Sanders said some of those who performed with Lovejoy will be on the festival stage including Eric Perkins and some of Lovejoy’s former band.
Lovejoy was born in Wetumpka in 1950 and music was in his blood from the start.
“My aunts and uncles, they played piano,” Lovejoy told the magazine. “My uncle Joe White, he git me on the piano when I was about 3 or 4 years old and I’ve been in music ever since.”
Lovejoy said his mother loved gospel and sang in the Second Baptist Church in Wetumpka.
“I got a lot of my singing training from her,” Lovejoy said at the time. “She used to sit me down when I was real small and we used to sing gospel hymns.”
Lovejoy’s father played the trumpet. The family formed a band.
“They played blues,” Lovejoy said. “It was basically their influence that got me into blues. As I say in my song ‘Keep On Singing the Blues,’ I was raised on the blues.”
Learning drums in school at age 6, Lovejoy was in the band at W.B. Doby School under the direction of Al Stringer.
“I was so small they had to have a special band uniform made for me,” Lovejoy said. “Al Stringer was my mentor, he was a very great influence on me.”
Lovejoy would play in the family band singing songs from The Drifters.
“I got a chance to play with them when I was about 7 years old,” Lovejoy said. “They did a homecoming show in Wetumpka — I was playing drums.”
Lovejoy listed the blues greats of Bobby Bland, B.B. King and Tyrone Davis as influences. But it was a local concert that led Lovejoy down a path of taking his music beyond Wetumpka.
“Joe Tex came to my high school when I was about 14,” Lovejoy said. “When I saw him, I said ‘This is what I want to do.’ He was some kind of performer.”
Lovejoy lived in Boston when he was in the Marines. He returned to Alabama and started playing in churches. All across the South, and Lovejoy played with King Tut and The Untouchables.
Lovejoy then ventured out on his own in the music world. He eventually moved to California. Lovejoy used connections he made performing in Alabama with King Tut. The renewed connection led to the recording of Lovejoy’s second album “Suddenly” in 1992.
Lovejoy said he was sick at the time of recording the album.
“I didn’t know how sick I was,” Lovejoy said. “Right after that I had a massive heart attack. I went out nine times and they brought me back nine times. I woke up nine weeks later with a stroke on my right side, paralyzed. I had to learn to walk again, talk again, everything.”
The event encouraged Lovejoy to return to Alabama.
“I said, ‘Hey, if I die, I’m gonna die in Alabama at home in the South,’” Lovejoy said. “I went back home and I guess the man up there didn’t want me to go at that time.”
In 1994 Lovejoy recorded the album “My Baby’s Cheating on Me.” Lovejoy wrote all but one song on the album.
Lovejoy said his favorite album was “Think About You All the Time.”
“There’s some good songs on that album,” Lovejoy said.
Lovejoy told the magazine the album was played by disc jockeys. He returned to the road playing his music. Lovejoy played Club 57 in St. Louis, opened for Johnnie Taylor in Montgomery and more.
“I played in Detroit and Grand Rapids and in Chicago,” Lovejoy said.
He played an entire year at the Silver Star Casino in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
“I did like six shows, six nights a week,” Lovejoy said.
Lovejoy had Monday’s off but still found time to drive back to Montgomery late Saturday night for church.
“I was so tired,” Lovejoy said. “I was stressed out, but I was enjoying it.”
He recorded “Until You Get Enough of Me” in 1998. “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” followed in 1999. The album included “Sho’ Wasn’t Me.”
Lovejoy started songwriting as a teenager writing poems when he was 12 and transitioning to songs at 14. He wrote songs for Cicero Blake, Joyce Lawson, Willie Clayton and Buddy Ace.
“Basically with a song, I try to tell the whole story,” Lovejoy said. “If a man is cheating on his woman, I get into the situation. I write about what I see, things that have happened to me in my life and things that have happened to people around me.”
Lovejoy said life turns out to be funny but can still be an inspiration for songs and music.
“Blues doesn’t have to be sad all the time,” Lovejoy said. “Blues can help you. It can make you feel better. It can be very downhearted situation, yet you can get a storyline where it’s funny and uplifting.”
