Robert Shaw was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist….best known for his 1963 album….The Ma Grinder. He learned his barrel house style of playing from musicians in the Fourth Ward in Houston. In the 1920’s….Shaw was part of the “Santa Fe Circuit” named after touring musicians utilizing the Santa Fe freight trains. Although he played in Chicago….Shaw mainly restricted himself to Texas….performing as a soloist in the clubs and roadhouses of Sugarland, Richmond, Kingsville, Houston and Dallas. In 1930, at the height of the Kilgore oil boom…Shaw played there. He relocated in Austin where he settled down and took up residence….owning a grocery store known as the Stop and Swat…which Bone Daddy had stopped at on many occasions.
