Little known blues singer now a legend

Little known blues singer now a legend
August 16, 2009
by Jim Beal, Jr.
My SA Entertainment

There might well be ancient pharaohs about whom more is known than Robert Johnson.

Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Miss., in 1911. He died on Aug. 16, 1938, in Greenwood, Miss. Not a heck of a lot about Johnson's life, and death, are known for certain. But this is fact: on Nov. 23, 26 and 27, downtown in the Gunter Hotel, Johnson cut some songs with record producer Don Law for the American Record Co.

During the sessions, Johnson recorded 16 songs: "Kindhearted Woman Blues," "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," "Sweet Home Chicago," "Rambling on My Mind," "When You Got a Good Friend," "Come on in My Kitchen," "Terraplane Blues," "Phonograph Blues," "32-20 Blues," "They're Red Hot," "Dead Shrimp Blues," "Cross Road Blues," "Walking Blues," "Last Fair Deal Gone Down," "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)" and "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day."

Those songs became some of the most influential in blues history. In the mid-'60s, Columbia Records released a Robert Johnson compilation album, "King of the Delta Blues Singers," that included most of the S.A. recordings along with selections recorded in 1937 in Dallas. In 1970, Columbia released "King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2." In 1990, all of Johnson's known recordings, plus extensive liner notes and logs for the original recording sessions, were compiled in a two-CD boxed set, "The Complete Recordings" (Columbia/Legacy). The set sold more than a million copies.

The songs recorded at the Gunter have been covered not only by a "Who's Who" of blues, rock and blues/rock, they've also been recorded by the likes of the City Rhythm Orchestra, Pyeng Threadgill and the Turtle Island String Quartet.

In 2001, after trying for almost five years, the San Antonio Blues Society commemorated Johnson's S.A. recording sessions with the unveiling of a memorial plaque and memorabilia displays in the Sheraton Gunter Hotel lobby. The society continues to observe the Johnson recordings with an annual concert in November.

Johnson wasn't famous in his lifetime, but the songs he recorded in San Antonio at the Gunter Hotel helped make him a legend.