Page 84 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2015

Searching for

Robert Johnson

in the Soggy

Mississippi Delta

The author’s search for Robert Johnson in Greenwood, MS started
shortly after snapping this shot of art depicting the legendary
bluesman in Clarksdale Photo by Gianna Volpe

By Gianna Volpe
It was dusk on January 23rd when the 2015 International following morning at his shop where this reporter scored
Blues Challenge (IBC) semifinalists took on Memphis' Beale some excellent records like Tommy Johnson and Ishman
Street and rain began to fall deep in the heart of the Mississippi Bracey's 1928 recording session and T-Model Ford's first
Delta, where a young couple headed south from Clarksdale in album, Peewee Get My Gun – "looking for Robert Johnson's
search of Robert Johnson's final resting place. grave is rather like looking for Santa's workshop."
The act itself is a metaphor, a funny thing to try and find. To better understand the mythological breadth of Robert
The most influential bluesman is also the most mysterious. Leroy Johnson's life and death, check out the screenplay
Folklore says he traded his soul for guitar prowess at the Love in Vain along with whatever reading material Mr.
Crossroads before being poisoned when he was just 27 Stolle recommends. You see, some consider the legendary
years old. Robert Johnson himself to be a metaphor; a proverbial blues
As Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art Store in Clarksdale, unicorn I hunted with my friend, one guit-fiddlin' Robert
MS proprietor Roger Stolle would say – and did the “Johnson” Europe that stormy night in Greenwood, MS.

The gravesite of legendary bluesman Robert Leroy Johnson is in Greenwood, MS Roger Stolle at work at Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art Store in Clarksdale, MS
Photo by Gianna Volpe Photo by Gianna Volpe

82 Blues Festival Guide 2015