Tuesday February 15, 2022 “CrossRoad Blues” Robert Johnson
He cut only two albums’ worth of material, in an era before albums existed and for years, nobody even knew what he looked like.
His guitar playing could be considered basic by modern standards, his voice was raw and even in his home territory of the Mississippi Delta, hardly anybody had heard of him during his lifetime.
When talent scout John Hammond tried to give him a break with a Carnegie Hall booking, Johnson was already dead, aged 27, the founding member of the infamous ‘27 club’, and we don’t really know what (or who) killed him. Much of his legend is merely mythical. Could he really have made a pact with the devil in order to become a great bluesman?
Yet Robert Johnson remains magic, and his songs have echoed down through the years. Eric Clapton is a Robert Johnson devotee, Keith Richards another, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are fans. Elmore James made Johnson’s “Dust My Broom” a standard, and “Sweet Home Chicago”, “Crossroad Blues” and “Love In Vain” are staples of blues jams the world over.
Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound On My Trail” created the image of the bluesman as the hard-living, drifting, haunted loner that he probably was. He may not have originated the blues but his very few recordings planted the seed for today’s guitarists and singers and allowed them to nourish those seeds and let them grow.
Stay safe and well…and should you be interested, Robert Johnson’s CrossRoads are at the intersection of Highway 61 and Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. If you go there, just be careful who you talk to.