Born January 16, 1896, in Hernando, Mississippi, twenty-one miles below Memphis, Wilkins was raised on a farm and assumed his stepfather's surname of Oliver at the age of two. Tim Oliver learned the rudiments of guitar circa 1904 from his stepfather, who occasionally entertained Jim Jackson as a houseguest. At the age of fifteen Tim Oliver reassumed the surname Wilkins and moved to Memphis to find work. He served in the Army during World War I but returned to Memphis in 1919 to become a professional musician. Wilkins worked in Memphis during the Roaring Twenties, sharing billing with Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie (whom he claimed to have tutored), Son House, and other musicians for local shows. He also organized a jug band to capitalize on the "jug band craze" then in vogue; like Sleepy John Estes's Three J's Jug Band or Frank Stokes's participation in fiddler Will Batt's string band, this was a necessity for obtaining well-paying gigs. Though never attaining success comparabl! e to the Memphis Jug Band, Wilkins reinforced his local popularity with a 1927 appearance on a Memphis radio station, a distinction shared by few of his peers. Like Estes and Stokes (and unlike Gus Cannon of Cannon's Jug Stompers) he recorded alone or with a single accompanist. His first sessions for the Victor label in 1928 yielded the droning, one-chord "Rolling Stone," whose title, if not structure, later inspired Muddy Waters. In September 1929, Wilkins recorded for the Brunswick label in Memphis's ...
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