Tommy Johnson - Canned Heat Blues

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller's Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy's uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings's Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi's Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery's Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song "Maggie Campbell Blues." Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy's "Yellow Dog Blues."

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious "Canned Heat Blues," in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in "Alcohol and Jake Blues," waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount's studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

Johnson's recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist of his day. His facile guitar playing, rhythmic and solid, was secondary to his exceptional singing. Echoes of Johnson's vocal style, notably on "Cool Drink of Water Blues," can be heard in Howlin' Wolf's delivery. Johnson's influence passed from musician to musician: bluesman Houston Stackhouse taught fledgling guitarist Robert Nighthawk several Tommy Johnson numbers.

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona similar to that of St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, the self-styled "Devil's son-in-law." His brother LeDell later said that Tommy claimed to have made a pact with Ol' Scratch at the crossroads, a subject later touched upon by bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation). Adding further eccentricity to his conjurer image, Johnson carried and displayed a large rabbit's foot. Another distinction, perhaps borrowed or picked up from Patton, was a proclivity for "clowning" with his guitar. Even after his death, Johnson was remembered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics. Johnson spent the rest of his years in Crystal Springs and remained a popular performer in the Jackson area through the 1940s.

Tommy Johnson died of a heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956. He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Blind Willie Johnson - God Moves On The Water

A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”

Tommy Jonhson - Ridin' Horse

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller's Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy's uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings's Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi's Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery's Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song "Maggie Campbell Blues." Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy's "Yellow Dog Blues."

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious "Canned Heat Blues," in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in "Alcohol and Jake Blues," waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount's studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

Johnson's recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist of his day. His facile guitar playing, rhythmic and solid, was secondary to his exceptional singing. Echoes of Johnson's vocal style, notably on "Cool Drink of Water Blues," can be heard in Howlin' Wolf's delivery. Johnson's influence passed from musician to musician: bluesman Houston Stackhouse taught fledgling guitarist Robert Nighthawk several Tommy Johnson numbers.

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona similar to that of St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, the self-styled "Devil's son-in-law." His brother LeDell later said that Tommy claimed to have made a pact with Ol' Scratch at the crossroads, a subject later touched upon by bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation). Adding further eccentricity to his conjurer image, Johnson carried and displayed a large rabbit's foot. Another distinction, perhaps borrowed or picked up from Patton, was a proclivity for "clowning" with his guitar. Even after his death, Johnson was remembered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics. Johnson spent the rest of his years in Crystal Springs and remained a popular performer in the Jackson area through the 1940s.

Tommy Johnson died of a heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956. He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Tommy Johnson - Morning Prayer Blues

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller's Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy's uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings's Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi's Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery's Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song "Maggie Campbell Blues." Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy's "Yellow Dog Blues."

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious "Canned Heat Blues," in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in "Alcohol and Jake Blues," waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount's studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

Johnson's recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist of his day. His facile guitar playing, rhythmic and solid, was secondary to his exceptional singing. Echoes of Johnson's vocal style, notably on "Cool Drink of Water Blues," can be heard in Howlin' Wolf's delivery. Johnson's influence passed from musician to musician: bluesman Houston Stackhouse taught fledgling guitarist Robert Nighthawk several Tommy Johnson numbers.

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona similar to that of St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, the self-styled "Devil's son-in-law." His brother LeDell later said that Tommy claimed to have made a pact with Ol' Scratch at the crossroads, a subject later touched upon by bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation). Adding further eccentricity to his conjurer image, Johnson carried and displayed a large rabbit's foot. Another distinction, perhaps borrowed or picked up from Patton, was a proclivity for "clowning" with his guitar. Even after his death, Johnson was remembered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics. Johnson spent the rest of his years in Crystal Springs and remained a popular performer in the Jackson area through the 1940s.

Tommy Johnson died of a heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956. He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Tommy Johnson - Big Road Blues

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller's Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy's uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings's Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi's Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery's Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song "Maggie Campbell Blues." Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy's "Yellow Dog Blues."

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious "Canned Heat Blues," in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in "Alcohol and Jake Blues," waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount's studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

Johnson's recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist of his day. His facile guitar playing, rhythmic and solid, was secondary to his exceptional singing. Echoes of Johnson's vocal style, notably on "Cool Drink of Water Blues," can be heard in Howlin' Wolf's delivery. Johnson's influence passed from musician to musician: bluesman Houston Stackhouse taught fledgling guitarist Robert Nighthawk several Tommy Johnson numbers.

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona similar to that of St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, the self-styled "Devil's son-in-law." His brother LeDell later said that Tommy claimed to have made a pact with Ol' Scratch at the crossroads, a subject later touched upon by bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation). Adding further eccentricity to his conjurer image, Johnson carried and displayed a large rabbit's foot. Another distinction, perhaps borrowed or picked up from Patton, was a proclivity for "clowning" with his guitar. Even after his death, Johnson was remembered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics. Johnson spent the rest of his years in Crystal Springs and remained a popular performer in the Jackson area through the 1940s.

Tommy Johnson died of a heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956. He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Corinthians - Campeão Paulista - 2013

E vencemos mais uma vez. Após a eliminação pela Taça Libertadores contra o Boca Juniors na última quarta-feira, chegamos hoje ao nosso 27º título paulista. Somos o único time grande de SP a ganhar algo neste ano e até o final deste ano ainda podemos bater no peito e dizer somos os atuais Campeões do Mundo.

Paulista não vale nada? Dor de cotovelo de quem perde.

Gols da primeira partida - Corinthians 2 x 1 Santos - Pacaembú - 12/05/2013


Gols da segunda partida - Santos 1 x 1 Corinthians - 19/05/2013


Poster

Tommy Johnson - Cool Drink of Water Blues

Tommy Johnson was born circa 1896, on George Miller's Plantation near Terry, Mississippi, twenty miles south of the state capital of Jackson. One of thirteen children, Tommy and his family moved to Crystal Springs, Mississippi, around 1910. The Johnsons were a musical family. Tommy's uncle and brothers Mager and LeDell played guitar, while other relatives played in a brass band. LeDell taught Tommy the rudiments of guitar about 1910, and by 1914 the Johnson brothers were supplementing their sharecropping incomes by playing parties in the Crystal Springs area.

In 1916, Tommy Johnson married Maggie Bidwell and the couple moved to Webb Jennings's Plantation near Drew, in Mississippi's Yazoo Delta region close to Dockery's Plantation. Although Johnson would have several wives, it was his first whom he later immortalized in the song "Maggie Campbell Blues." Johnson soon fell under the spell of Dockery resident Charley Patton and local guitarists Dick Bankston and Willie Brown. He lived there for a year, learning the nuances of the Delta style before moving on to hobo around Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Johnson, now an alcoholic and womanizer, moved back to Crystal Springs in 1920, resuming his musical partnership with Mager and LeDell. He also returned to life as a sharecropper, playing at parties on the weekends or on the streets of Jackson and nearby towns for tips. During the fall cotton harvest season, Johnson traveled back to the Delta, playing for sharecroppers who had just been paid. During the early 1920s he gigged with Charley Patton in Greenwood and nearby Moorehead. The latter is famous for its railroad crossing Where the Southern Crosses the Dog, heralded in W.C. Handy's "Yellow Dog Blues."

Johnson cut his first records with guitarist Charlie McCoy in February 1928 at the Memphis Auditorium for the Victor label. These sides sold well enough to prompt a follow-up session in August of that year. That session yielded the notorious "Canned Heat Blues," in which he admitted to drinking Sterno to satisfy his alcohol cravings. The theme of alcoholism would be touched upon again in "Alcohol and Jake Blues," waxed during his final recording session for the Paramount label in December 1929. Johnson traveled to Paramount's studio in Grafton, Wisconsin, where Delta luminaries Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton had also recorded. After the onset of the Great Depression, the enthusiasm of the record-buying public lessened and Johnson was not invited to record further.

Johnson's recordings showcased an eerie falsetto and masterfully manipulated vocal dynamics that established him as the premier Delta blues vocalist of his day. His facile guitar playing, rhythmic and solid, was secondary to his exceptional singing. Echoes of Johnson's vocal style, notably on "Cool Drink of Water Blues," can be heard in Howlin' Wolf's delivery. Johnson's influence passed from musician to musician: bluesman Houston Stackhouse taught fledgling guitarist Robert Nighthawk several Tommy Johnson numbers.

To enhance his fame, Johnson cultivated a sinister persona similar to that of St. Louis bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, the self-styled "Devil's son-in-law." His brother LeDell later said that Tommy claimed to have made a pact with Ol' Scratch at the crossroads, a subject later touched upon by bluesman Robert Johnson (no relation). Adding further eccentricity to his conjurer image, Johnson carried and displayed a large rabbit's foot. Another distinction, perhaps borrowed or picked up from Patton, was a proclivity for "clowning" with his guitar. Even after his death, Johnson was remembered for playing the guitar between his legs like he was riding a mule, playing it behind his head, tossing the guitar up in the air, and other acrobatic antics. Johnson spent the rest of his years in Crystal Springs and remained a popular performer in the Jackson area through the 1940s.

Tommy Johnson died of a heart attack after playing a party on November 1, 1956. He is buried in the Warm Springs Methodist Church Cemetery in Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Blind Willie Johnson - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning

A singing street-corner evangelist, Blind Willie Johnson created some of the most intensely moving records of the 20th century. Void of frivolity or uncertainty, his 78s from the 1920s and ’30s are clearly the work of a pained believer seeking redemption. A slide guitarist nonpareil, Johnson had an exquisite sense of timing and tone, using a pocketknife or ring slider to duplicate his vocal inflections or to produce an unforgettable phrase from a single strike of a string. Eric Clapton cites his “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” as “probably the finest slide guitar playing you’ll ever hear,” and Ry Cooder calls “Dark Was the Night – Cold Was the Ground” the “most transcendent piece in all American music.”

Robert Johnson - Rambling On My Mind

Source: Robert Johnson Blues Foundation

One hundred years ago, a boy-child was born in Mississippi – a dirt-poor, African-American who would grow up, learn to sing and play the blues, and eventually achieve worldwide renown. In the decades after his death, he has become known as the King of the Delta Blues Singers, his music expanding in influence to the point that rock stars of the greatest magnitude – the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers – all sing his praise and have recorded his songs.
That boy-child was Robert Johnson, an itinerant blues singer and guitarist who lived from 1911 to 1938. He recorded 29 songs between 1936 and ‘37 for the American Record Corporation, which released eleven 78rpm records on their Vocalion label during Johnson¹s lifetime, and one after his death.
Most of these tunes have attained canonical status, and are now considered enduring anthems of the genre: “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “I Believe I¹ll Dust My Broom,” “Walking Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Like many bluesmen of his day, Johnson plied his craft on street corners and in jook joints, ever rambling and ever lonely – and writing songs that romanticized that existence. But Johnson accomplished this with such an unprecedented intensity, marrying his starkly expressive vocals with a guitar mastery, that his music has endured long after the heyday of country blues and his own short life.
Never had the hardships of the world been transformed into such a poetic height; never had the blues plumbed such an emotional depth. Johnson took the intense loneliness, terrors and tortuous lifestyle that came with being an African-American in the South during the Great Depression, and transformed that specific and very personal experience into music of universal relevance and global reach. “You want to know how good the blues can get?” Keith Richards once asked, answering his own question: “Well, this is it.” Eric Clapton put it more plainly: “I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.”
The power of Johnson’s music has been amplified over the years by the fact that so little about him is known and what little biographical information we now have only revealed itself at an almost glacial pace. Myths surrounding his life took over: that he was a country boy turned ladies’ man; that he only achieved his uncanny musical mastery after selling his soul to the devil. Even the tragedy of his death seemed to grow to mythic proportion: being poisoned by a jealous boyfriend then taking three days to expire, even as the legendary talent scout John Hammond was searching him out to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In 1990, Sony Legacy produced and released the 2-CD box set Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings to widespread critical acclaim and, for a country blues reissue, unprecedented sales. The Complete Recordings proved the existence of a potential market for music from the deepest reaches of Sony¹s catalog, especially if buoyed by a strong story with mainstream appeal. Johnson¹s legend continues to attract an ever-widening audience, with no sign of abating. If, in today¹s world of hip-hop and heavy metal, a person knows of only one country blues artist, odds are it is Robert Johnson.

Bye Bye Blues

It looks like a galaxy! Too many stars! Blues masterpiece.

Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Ottis Spann, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Victoria Spivey

Lonnie Johnson - Another Night To Cry

Alfonzo "Lonnie" Johnson (February 8, 1899 – June 16, 1970), was a pioneering Blues and Jazz guitarist and banjoist. He started playing in cafes in New Orleans and in 1917 he traveled in Europe, playing in revues and briefly with Will Marion Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra. When he returned home to New Orleans in 1918 he discovered that his entire family had been killed by a flu epidemic except for one brother. He and his surviving brother, James "Steady Roll" Johnson moved to St. Louis in 1920 where Lonnie played with Charlie Creath's Jazz-O-Maniacs and with Fate Marable in their Mississippi riverboat bands. In 1925 Johnson married Blues singer Mary Johnson and won a Blues contest sponsored by the Okeh record company. Part of the prize was a recording deal with the company. Throughout the rest of the 1920s he recorded with a variety of bands and musicians, including Eddie Lang, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In the 1930s Johnson moved to Cleveland, Ohio and worked with the Putney Dandridge Orchestra, and then in a tire factory and steel mill. In 1937 he moved back to Chicago and played with Johnny Dodds, and Jimmie Noone. Johnson continued to play for the rest of his life, but was often forced to leave the music business for periods to make a living. In 1963 he once again appeared briefly with Duke Ellington.

Robert Johnson - When You Got a Good Friend

Source: Robert Johnson Blues Foundation

One hundred years ago, a boy-child was born in Mississippi – a dirt-poor, African-American who would grow up, learn to sing and play the blues, and eventually achieve worldwide renown. In the decades after his death, he has become known as the King of the Delta Blues Singers, his music expanding in influence to the point that rock stars of the greatest magnitude – the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers – all sing his praise and have recorded his songs.
That boy-child was Robert Johnson, an itinerant blues singer and guitarist who lived from 1911 to 1938. He recorded 29 songs between 1936 and ‘37 for the American Record Corporation, which released eleven 78rpm records on their Vocalion label during Johnson¹s lifetime, and one after his death.
Most of these tunes have attained canonical status, and are now considered enduring anthems of the genre: “Cross Road Blues,” “Love In Vain,” “Hellhound On My Trail,” “I Believe I¹ll Dust My Broom,” “Walking Blues,” “Sweet Home Chicago.”
Like many bluesmen of his day, Johnson plied his craft on street corners and in jook joints, ever rambling and ever lonely – and writing songs that romanticized that existence. But Johnson accomplished this with such an unprecedented intensity, marrying his starkly expressive vocals with a guitar mastery, that his music has endured long after the heyday of country blues and his own short life.
Never had the hardships of the world been transformed into such a poetic height; never had the blues plumbed such an emotional depth. Johnson took the intense loneliness, terrors and tortuous lifestyle that came with being an African-American in the South during the Great Depression, and transformed that specific and very personal experience into music of universal relevance and global reach. “You want to know how good the blues can get?” Keith Richards once asked, answering his own question: “Well, this is it.” Eric Clapton put it more plainly: “I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson.”
The power of Johnson’s music has been amplified over the years by the fact that so little about him is known and what little biographical information we now have only revealed itself at an almost glacial pace. Myths surrounding his life took over: that he was a country boy turned ladies’ man; that he only achieved his uncanny musical mastery after selling his soul to the devil. Even the tragedy of his death seemed to grow to mythic proportion: being poisoned by a jealous boyfriend then taking three days to expire, even as the legendary talent scout John Hammond was searching him out to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
In 1990, Sony Legacy produced and released the 2-CD box set Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings to widespread critical acclaim and, for a country blues reissue, unprecedented sales. The Complete Recordings proved the existence of a potential market for music from the deepest reaches of Sony¹s catalog, especially if buoyed by a strong story with mainstream appeal. Johnson¹s legend continues to attract an ever-widening audience, with no sign of abating. If, in today¹s world of hip-hop and heavy metal, a person knows of only one country blues artist, odds are it is Robert Johnson.

Johnnie Johnson - Georgia on my Mind

Johnnie Johnson is considered by many to be the world's greatest living Blues Pianist & the Founding Father of Rock & Roll Music!

Johnnie was rediscovered in 1986, when Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards sought out Johnnie for the film,"Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll."

Johnnie was honored by receiving a Congressional Citation in 1999, for his lifetime contributions to Blues & Jazz Music.

Johnnie was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.