At the age of 51, Wallace Coleman joined Robert Jr. Lockwood’s band, marking the beginning of his professional music career. Soon he was traveling throughout the United States, Canada, and overseas playing major Blues Festivals and clubs.

WLAC introduced young Coleman to the thriving Blues artists of the day who would soon become some of his greatest musical influences; artists who would carve out their own legendary status in Blues Music history – among them Little Walter Jacobs, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters. Creating parts and laying down the guitar foundation for many of those Chess recordings was Robert Jr. Lockwood – a man who, some 25 years later, would play a pivotal role in Coleman’s future.

Coleman left Tennessee in the ‘50s to find work in Cleveland, Ohio. He found steady work, and to his delight, an active Blues community where touring artists like Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, B.B. King and others came to perform. Coleman’s introduction to the Cleveland Blues scene meant seeing as many touring artists as possible. In the 1960s, Lockwood and Sonny Boy Williamson II, who had been performing together in the South, made their way to Chicago and eventually to Cleveland, taking up residence and performing.

While Coleman would not meet Lockwood until much later, he often went to see Williamson perform at local venues. The two became friendly, discovering they lived only blocks apart. Williamson would soon depart for Europe while Lockwood made Cleveland his permanent and final home.