Hellhound on My Trail
During his second and final recording session in June 1937, Robert Johnson sat in a makeshift studio inside the Brunswick Record building in Dallas. It was a sweltering summer weekend, but Johnson delivered a track of chilling psychological terror. Utilizing an eerie, dissonant open E-minor tuning, he picked out fragmented, ghostly notes that perfectly mirrored his desperate, wandering vocals. "Hellhound on My Trail" vividly painted the picture of a man hunted by demonic forces, standing today as perhaps the most haunting acoustic blues recording ever committed to wax.
The floating-verse lineage for this recording (who else recorded it, where the melody or lyric traveled, and how it was adapted) is still being mapped. This section will trace the song's DNA across the archive.
Contributions welcome at OlMrRead@ccblues.com.