Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson is the most mythologized figure in blues history, the Delta blues musician who allegedly sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for his extraordinary guitar skills. In reality, Johnson was a brilliant synthesist who absorbed the styles of Son House, Charley Patton, Kokomo Arnold, Lonnie Johnson, and Skip James and forged them into something bracingly original. His complete recorded output (just 29 songs cut in two sessions in 1936 and 1937 for Vocalion) is one of the most influential bodies of work in American music. 'Cross Road Blues,' 'Sweet Home Chicago,' 'Love in Vain,' 'Hellhound on My Trail,' and 'Rambling on My Mind' have been recorded hundreds of times. He was poisoned by a jealous husband and died in Greenwood, Mississippi, in August 1938 at age 27. The 1961 reissue of his recordings on Columbia's 'King of the Delta Blues Singers' LP was a pivotal catalyst for the blues revival and the British Invasion.