ROBERT JOHNSON

Robert Johnson, considered the most important blues musician ever to have lived, is one of the greatest guitarists of all time and a legendary folk hero born of the Delta Blues musical tradition of the deep south. In his brief life, his brilliant guitar skills and his unique singing and songwriting talents were captured for posterity, inspiring and influencing generations upon generations of musicians and fans of the blues.

Johnson's life was poorly documented (just two known photographs exist and much of what is known is culled from public records) but it is often questioned: is it real or is is legend ?

Born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in 1911, the youngest of eleven children, Johnson was the illegitimate offspring that resulted from his mother's affair with and a farm worker. Johnson endured a difficult childhood and adolescence, moving around the south, living in different homes and finally learning his family history. While living in Memphis he began playing the guitar, taught to him by an older half-brother. He also began learning to play the Jew's Harp and the harmonica. When he moved back to the Mississippi Delta region, he lived with his then remarried mother and a stepfather who had little tolerance for music; a teenage Johnson would sneak out of the house to play music with his friends.

As an adult, Johnson began traveling up and down the Delta, by bus, train or hitchhiking. He played his music in each new town on street corners or in local restaurants, earning money not from salaries but from tips. He took audience requests (rather than his own compositions and blues songs) and displayed an incredible ability to play by ear and deliver what the crowd wanted to hear. He developed faithful local followings, as well as the respect and admiration of fellow blues musicians in the region.

During this window of time, the legend of The Crossroads was born; folklore tells the story that Robert Johnson, burning with the desire to become a great blues musician, was told to go to the crossroad near Dockery's Plantation at midnight and to bring his guitar. The Devil, disguised as a large black man, met him and took the guitar, tuning it so he could play anything... in return, the Devil took his soul. In less than a year, Robert Johnson was the undisputed King of the Delta Blues, creating the greatest blues music anyone had ever heard.

Only two recording sessions in Johnson's career are verified through documentation; Johnson recorded for three days in November 1936 in a makeshift studio at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas and another two days in June 1937 in Dallas, Texas. From just these two sessions, the timeless blues catalogue of Robert Johnson was formed.
If the legend is to be believed, the Devil collected on his deal early; Johnson passed away on August 16, 1938 near a country crossroads in Greenwood, Mississippi. The circumstances surrounding his death remain mysterious and the location of his actual grave remains disputed.

After decades of relative obscurity, Johnson's posthumous success and influence took hold in 1961 when Columbia records released his works, allowing the then current generation of rock musicians, already inspired by the blues stylings in America, to find a new inspiration. Johnson's complete catalogue of songs contains just forty-one known recordings of twenty-nine compositions but his compositions, guitar work and unique microtonality (subtle inflections of pitch) convey strong emotions and proved to be a major influence on many artists across many musical genres even to this day. Johnson's songs have been covered by blues and rock musicians and guitarists extensively over the years. Often considered the Father of Rock 'n' Roll, Robert Johnson was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in in 1986, the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame in 2000 and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

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For more information on Robert Johnson, we encourage you to visit the following websites and seek out the listed reference materials:
www.deltahaze.com
www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org
www.rockhall.com/inductee/robert-johnson

Can't You Hear The Wind Howl? (2004 documentary film about Johnson)

The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson (boxed set booklet included)

Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson (book written by Alan Greenberg)

Searching for Robert Johnson (book written by Peter Guralnick)

MPCA is proud to own all of the songs in the Robert Johnson catalogue.