Well, I guess we can’t do an ongoing blues music feature without including Robert Johnson – our artist of the week.

This is where (arguably) rock and roll legend was born. How did this guy get so good in (reportedly) just under a year? Simple: Head down Clarksdale, find a (the) crossroads, hand your guitar over to a sketchy looking fellow who re-tunes it to (I think) open G, hand over your soul through a blood contract, and boom! Lou’s your uncle.

Charley Patton and Son House had a hard time shaking this guy who hung around with them like a lost dog, played and sang so bad that they laughed themselves to tears, and just couldn’t take a hint.

THEN…… he disappears for a while, shows up out of the blue with a talent and voice that make the aforementioned 2 blues masters roll their jaws back up off the floor, and says a whole lot of nothing about the whole thing. Then as quickly as he came, he went – either poisoned by a jealous girl, or alone in a hotel from syphilis – depends which source you reference.

Anyway, he left us 29 masterpieces of torture, love, regret, terror, and humour, and for that I am grateful. Hope you are at peace Robert. Peace out…

Key tracks:

Crossroad Blues

Hellhound  On My Trail

Kind Hearted Woman

Preaching’ Blues (my personal favourite)

Best served with: Mortise and Tenon – simple, solid, and ancient

and… a cross, bible, ankh: Some type of protective charm