man dig anything robert johnson, but critic tha I am, as much as John Hammond Jr. is mediocre cool, he's like the cracker equiv, of Louis Armstrong-style uncle-tommin'!He da Vanilla Ice of Blues....


Reminds me of Zappa....
A foolish young man
From a middle class fam'ly
Started singin' the blues
'Cause he thought it was manly
Now he talks like the Kingfish
("Saffiiiee!")
From Amos 'n Andy
("Holy mack'l dere...Holy mack'l
dere!")
He tells you that chitlins...
Well, they taste just like candy
He thinks that he's got
De whole thang down
From the Nivea Lotion
To de Royal Crown

Do you know what you are?
You are what you is
You is what you am
(A cow don't make ham...)
You ain't what you're not
So see what you got
You are what you is
An' that's all it 'tis

white folks...hrummPPPH!?

Wow hearing that made me so happy. Thanks NickyP.

I came across Blues in general with Leadbelly and Robert Johnson back in Africa reading up on popular music in the Encarta 95 CD that came packaged with the computer the family bought. It's funny looking back now, realizing that was the only source of alternative musical exposure I had then. I still think Microsoft is evil though.

===

Huddie William Ledbetter (January 23, 1888 - December 6, 1949) was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. He is best known as Leadbelly or Lead Belly (see below).

Although his most commonly-played instrument was the twelve string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, concertina, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad "John Hardy", he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar.

The topics of Lead Belly's music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs, blues songs about women, liquor, racism, folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding, dancing, and songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as President Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, the Scottsboro Boys, and multi-millionaire Howard Hughes.

- More @ <ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadbelly">Wikipedia

In response to

http://www.videosift.com/video/In-Search-of-Robert-Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous Delta Blues musicians and arguably the most influential. He is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Considered by some to be the "Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll," his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style influenced a range of musicians, including Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, who called Johnson "the most important blues musician who ever lived."

Of all the great blues musicians, Johnson was probably the most obscure. All that is known of him for certain is that he recorded 29 songs; he died young; and he was considered one of the greatest bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta.

There are five significant dates in Johnson's life: Monday, Thursday and Friday, November 23, 26, and 27, 1936, he was in San Antonio, Texas, at a recording session. Seven months later, on Saturday and Sunday, June 19–20, 1937, he was in Dallas at another session. Everything else about his life is an attempt at reconstruction. Director Martin Scorsese says in his foreword to Alan Greenberg's filmscript Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, "The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend."

- More @ <ahref="http://www.videosift.com/video/In-Search-of-Robert-Johnson">Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson
The most widely known legend surrounding Robert Johnson says that he sold his soul to the Devil at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 61 and U.S. Highway 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi in exchange for prowess in playing the guitar. Actually, the location Johnson made reference to is a short distance away from that intersection. The legend was told mainly by Son House, but finds no corroboration in any of Johnson's work, despite titles like "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Hellhound on My Trail". With this said, the song "Cross Road Blues" is both widely and loosely interpreted by many as a descriptive encounter of Johnson selling his soul. The older Tommy Johnson (no relation, although it is speculated that they were cousins), by contrast, also claimed to have sold his soul to the Devil. The story goes that if one would go to the crossroads a little before midnight and begin to play the guitar, a large black man would come up to the aspiring guitarist, retune his guitar and then hand it back. At this point (so the legend goes) the guitarist had sold his soul to become a virtuoso (A similar legend even surrounded virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini a century before.)

Yesterday I submitted Dueling Banjos, and now I'm following up with dueling guitars.

This is from "Crossroads", based on an updated version of the old Robert Johnson legend -- here, the devil's guitarist is Steve Vai, while Ralph Maccio plays to defend his mentor (and it's really Ry Cooder's playing).