Robert Herschel Sampson was born in East St. Louis (MO) in 1980. Ten years later he had learned to play the guitar, drums and harmonica, and shortly later the piano, bass, banjo, sax and accordion. Sampson is visually impaired and legally blind. He recognizes his first musical influence and his life's passion was Creedence Clearwater Revival and his first band called Apollo 13 they played a lot of stuff from the Californian band. The direction towards blues music changed in his 20s when BB King and Ray Charles entered his life, when he started going to church and the gospel tones shook him inside. In 2005 he began playing keyboards in a band called Pleasure Chest and later he was in another called Back Pack Jones and during those years Sampson reached the IBC finals four times, the first in 2007. The first band he led was Lefty Preacher & The Southpaw Congregation - he adopted the pseudonym "Lefty Preacher" after hearing it shout at a fan at a concert - and although Sampson has prioritized performing alone, he has maintained activity with other bands such as Stomping Ground, Hurricane Creek or Bluesmatic. His first album was self-released in 2016 titled "Juke Box Boogie" and he has been involved in various blues programs in schools sponsored by the Blues Foundation. "They Call Me Lefty Preacher" is his second album and must be considered an exceptional work, atypically outside of what is expected in a contemporary blues album.