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A Century at the Crossroads

Steve Urban
BH_Blues_Club_by_Anthony_Scarlati.jpg

Robert Johnson was born in 1911 in the Mississippi Delta. The legend is that he was known to be an alright harmonica player and a pretty awful guitarist, until one fateful night when he made a deal with the devil. He sold his soul to be the greatest blues man ever and became a modern version of the Faustian myth. But the hell-hounds that were on his trail eventually caught up to him and he died at age 27. According to author, Julian Finn, Johnson may have been referring to Legba, a trickster deity, who was summoned in Voodoo rituals by a Root Doctor. Finn claims that the symbolism of his lyrics suggest that Johnson may have been initiated into a Voodoo cult. During his lifetime, he only had 2 recording sessions and never reached commercial success. When his recordings were reissued in 1961, however, he went on to become one of the most influential artists of all time. His songs were reinterpreted by The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers to name a few. He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and even received a Grammy for Lifetime Achivement Award in 2006.

"100 Years of Robert Johnson" is another chapter in the legacy of Robert Johnson. The Big Head Blues Club features B.B. King, Hubert Sumlin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Charlie Musselwhite, Ruthie Foster, Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm. All 10 tracks on this album truly capture the soulful blues of Robert Johnson.

To win a copy of "100 Years of Robert Johnson," tell us whether you think he did sell his soul to play some mean guitar, or you can also share your favorite memories listening to his music. The 2 best comments will win. Contest ends Thursday 3/10 at Midnight out on the Crossroads. 

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Comments

baby in your opinion i might be right or wrong...

Submitted by hollysaysgo on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 12:50.
when you got a good friend that will stay by your side, give her all your spare time :) both 'when you got a good friend' and 'walkin blues' are songs i can remember hearing in my living room as a little kid. my dad and his friend would jam out to robert johnson and we would play the tambourine, cups, plates, you know whatever. do i think he sold his soul? i dont know ... i tend to, because thats the story i heard as a little kid, combined with the curse of the 27s ... yeah, i'd say probably he did ;)

crossroad blues...I believe I'll dust my broom...

Submitted by crickettscott on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 11:16.
Crickett Scott :) Welcome to the BLUE.. Well well...so so so...when I think of the blues..I mean THE BLUES..I start "streaming" a recollective playlist ...one that comes from down up under where the blues get born...you know the place..I fall into a sort of bluish trance at that point...carefully selecting the situationals...why am I gonna sing the blues? What the hell is wrong with me besides a few loose screws? lost marbles? nah...i dont know that I have had THOSE blues...the ones that you sell your soul to get...the blues that get there before you and leave you singing for your supper...the kind that are genetic...cultural...the blue blue deep blue bloozy blues that make the "juice run down your leg..." the kind of blues that hellhounds are fond of...an epic blue, such as the blue we can smell and taste in Robert Johnsons music..that blue was BORN thru him...those blues grabbed ahold of his soul and marched his memory across the entire continent of music...his was the blood music...perhaps he sang the low deep melodies of our changing....regardless, he captivates the heart and body like no other blues artist..EVER...sometimes you swear you hear another guitar....an extra finger? Was he was the blues prototype? The template for a new hatched entity....one that slept and waited for the right time...the proper person....and BLUE was the emotional-color of that thread...Robert incubated a nescesssary element of our musical future...that is pure opinion, you know very well that "a womans like a dresser...some man always ramblin thru her drawers."...so perhaps I have stood there with him, at the crossroads, looking back at tribal beats, to the left and right at horns and strings and 8tracks and ipods...and strait on into a never endless infinite space where music is a symbol, we are the listeners, occupying this and every space in between here and the next available heart-ear...mind screen...bodies that sway and thump, sing and pray our way into the next shade of blue. A field of BLue and red exist along the way and each of us have given up a certain something along the way...a reason to mourn, a story to share....a recollection that must be born...so blue is THAT devil, that even the purest of women and sweetest of poisions wont be shaking us free from that progression...we will be in that parade. eager operators, dancing earnestly to the pied piper of all things blues...and we shall do it without our shoes, with out our mothers permission, dont bother looking twice too our social norms,...we are doing it now, on our knees...knowing that our souls are a part of something so blue we would explode if we had to take it all alone....so the devil meets us there and spills the beans...we get there..(heaven or hell) when we get there, and we take ourselves right up to the door where our souls retire and float around in oneness and OM..and we say."thats it? im done?" how boring!....but if we fall down on our knees and BEG this life to be extreme enough to get us all swollen hearted and inspired...BECAUSE of our troubles, not in spite of...then perhaps we can catch that next train to the crossroads...it looks like a phoenix rising up and out into a stormy sky of grey and midnight blue...so dark and unknown that we must SING so we might SEE...and there you have it folks...strait from my soul to yours....now.."I believe Ill Dust my broom..."before some "pretty mama starts breaking down on me"....I have conjured my bluest blue for you... my turn to shade in ..AHEM>>>i say too much and lordy knows my blood is thick and tight...the devil dances blue suede shoes...baby please just hear me..we must choose...naptime or night time, wrong or right...Robert Johnson had the souls SIGHT...and listen baby please, he was humbled on his knees and shadows kept him company, he was only free when he was singing blue...he made the blues a place to be....for me, it is this place we are in right here>>>>> here<<<<<<..where space and time are folded neatly into invisible stacks and we have sung our way beyond the fear....so thank you for joining in...:)...

Winners

Submitted by Steve Urban on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 16:16.
micko & crickettscott