04/19/2018
A reminder of the grand purpose of this Blues Legends Birthday Series: LEST WE FORGET!
The music will outlast the stories, but if the stories are lost, then the music will finally lose its context and fade away. What a loss that would be!
The Big Cheese, if you will, of our May 12th show is Robert Johnson, likely the single most famous of the Delta bluesmasters. Some consider him the “grandfather” of Rock n Roll
Too often we get wrapped up in the whole business of the “Crossroads” myth. The ‘deal with the devil’ theme goes back at least as far as Christopher Marlowe (1564-93. Goethe brought the story to its apex in the 19th century. Washington Irving, Hawthorne, and others used the theme gleefully.
The blues are often called “the Devil’s music”, so doesn’t the Faustian myth fit right in? Blues is rife with murder, s*x, booze, and co***ne. Robert Johnson is by no means the only figure with rumored links to Old Sratch. Tommy Johnson never denied similar rumors about himself.
Back to the music and the memories, really the only part that really matters, don’t we agree? To preserve the legacy of these artists is a calling for me, as it is for the Center for Southern Folklore. The Center offers the venue, I make the noise, and you complete the circle by coming to hear and hopefully learn stuff that you’ll love.
Robert, Blind Willie McTell, Kansas Joe, and L’il Son Joe have given us hours of great music. If I play it right, you’ll have one hell of a high ol’ time!
