<back - ROBERT JOHNSON - Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on May 8, 1911. He was born to Julie Ann Majors and a farm worker named Noah Johnson. He left school in 1927, and with little education began working on a plantation. Robert taught himself how to play the guitar and then learned guitar basics by observing legends such as Son House, Willie Brown, Charlie Patton and Ike Zinneman. Son House recalls, "We'd all play for the Saturday night balls, and there'd be this little boy hanging around. That was Robert Johnson. He blew a harmonica then, and he was pretty good at that, but he wanted to play a guitar". His goal was to be a Blues musician

Robert pursued this with relentless fervor, playing in local juke joints. On occasion Robert would  play with Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and Johnny Shines during the early 1930's. In 1936, a Jackson, Mississippi music store owner named HC Spier (who owned a recording machine and frequently recorded Charlie Patton and Son House) contacted Ernie Oertle of Columbia Records, about a recording he had made with Robert Johnson called Kind-Hearted Woman. Ernie Oertle and Robert went to San Antonio Texas, where in a 7 month period he recorded his songs, such as Me and the Devil Blues, Preachin' the Blues, There's a Hell Hound on My Trail, Love in Vain, Sweet Home Chicago, Drunken Hearted Man, Stop Breaking Down, Cross Road Blues, Terraplane Blues, They're Red Hot, You Got a Friend, and Walking Blues. With Terraplane Blues becoming his signature tune and selling over 4,000 copies, Robert Johnson hit the road, playing anywhere and everywhere he could up and down the Delta to St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit. Producer John Hammond Sr wanted Robert Johnson to play in his 'Spirituals to Swing'  New York concert in 1938. The news came back that Robert Johnson was dead. His life came to an end playing a dance in Three Forks, Mississippi with Sonny Boy Williamson. Story goes that his whiskey was laced with poison or lye, by the husband of a woman Robert had made advances toward. Robert continued playing into the night until he was too ill to continue and lay sick for several days. He passed on August 16, 1938 at age 27. His music has influenced a number of musicians who dramatically changed music history. Popular covers of his songs have been recorded by Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones, Elmore James, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, and many others. If the Blues has a truly mythic figure, whose story hangs over the music the way Charlie Parker does over Jazz or Hank Williams does over Country, it's Robert Johnson. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame (1980) and Rock&Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. MP3- Terraplane Blues | Love in Vain |