The Search For Robert Johnson (DVD)

Contents

Program Start; Legends and Myths; Growing Up In The Delta; Musical Influences; Leaving Home; Girlfriends; Runnin' With RJ; RJ's Aliases; Settling Down & Marriage; RJ & The Devil; Helena, Arkansas; Alcohol; Back Home; RJ's Son; Jackson, Miss & H.C. Spears; San Antonio (1st Recording Session); Dallas (2nd Recording Session); The Death Of RJ; Walkin' Blues - John Hammond Jr. & Honeyboy Edwards; The Poisoning Of RJ; Burial & Death Certificate; RJ's Gravesite; Credit Roll.

Robert Johnson, Guitar/Vocals; John Hammond, Organ/Electric Piano; David Honeyboy Edwards, Vocal/Guitar.

Extended Article

You'd think you were getting a handle on playing the blues, reminisces Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, and then to hear Johnson - Whoa! There's a long way to go yet... ...The greatest folk blues player that ever lived, Eric Clapton picks up the thread, the greatest singer, the greatest writer.

Who was Robert Johnson? To three generations of true believers he was the king of the Mississippi Delta country blues, cut down more than 50 years ago at the age of 27 by poisoned whiskey at the hands of a jealous husband in a plantation juke joiny. His most well-known songs were turned into R&B and rock standards over the years: Walkin' Blues (Muddy Waters), I Believe I'll Dust My Broom (Elmore James), Love In Vain (Rolling Stones), From Four Until Late (Cream), Cross Road Blues (Eric Clapton) and only two dozen more. Yet the details of Johnson's incandescent young life, from birth to his still-disputed burial site, remained shrouded in mystery, even secrecy, for more than a half-century.

For the first time in history, The Search For Robert Johnson traces this private, troubled figure. In documentary style, drawing on the research of blues scholars Mack McCormick and Gayle Dean Wardlow for its foundation, the soul of an elusive spirit is pieced together. Those who come to bear witness include fellow bluesman Johnny Shines and Honeyboy Edwards, who learned their craft from Johnson, girlfriend Willie Mae Powell (who inspired Love In Vain); and others who knew the man that folklore says sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads. In another first, the man who may be Johnson's long-lost son is introduced.

Narrator John Hammond steers us through this travelogue as he reenacts the work of the original researchers, crisscrossing the Delta by automobile and freight car; unveiling marriage records from six decades ago; taking us to the sites of Johnson's only two recording sessions in 1936 and '37; and finally exploring the circumstances of Johnson's grisly murder on August 16, 1938. You may bury my body, sang Johnson in Me And The Devil Blues, down by the highway side/So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride.

-Arthur Levy

Read About This Recording

For the first time in history, The Search For Robert Johnson traces this private, troubled figure. In documentary style, drawing on the research of blues scholars Mack McCormick and Gayle Dean Wardlow, the soul of an elusive spirit is pieced together.

Narrator John Hammond steers us through this travelogue as he reenacts the work of the original researchers, crisscrossing the Delta by automobile and freight car; unveiling marriage records from six decades ago; taking us to the sites of Johnson's only two recording sessions in 1936 and '37; and finally exploring the circumstances of Johnson's grisly murder on August 16, 1938.

You'd think you were getting a handle on playing the blues, and then to hear Johnson - Whoa! There's a long way to go yet... -Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones

...The greatest folk blues player that ever lived, the greatest singer, the greatest writer. -Eric Clapton