Page 85 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2015

This was the exact stuff of which Rob's beloved blues
was made, so when he asked if we should call the game
on account of the rain, I assured him there would be no
better time to look for Robert Johnson's grave than during
a downpour amid the dead of night and winter all at once.
The legend himself had reminded me of that. I'd spotted
Robert Johnson's graffitied portrait smiling at us from the
door frame of Muddy Waters' birth house, which has been
reconstructed within the new wing of Clarksdale's Delta
Blues Museum. He was out there, yards away in the rain,
reminding me that the kind of satisfaction we sought would
not be found within any four walls.
We came close to visiting two of Robert Johnson's three
The Crossroads is where Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil, the story goes disputed grave sites that night, but when Rob announced our
Photo courtesy Roger Stolle arrival to the first – a Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Metaphor or not, this trip was an important one, the only in Morgan City, MS – I said, “No, No, NO. We're looking
thing that would stand the chance of getting the competition for Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Greenwood,”
roaring up in Memphis off my good boy's mind. where an alleged eyewitness placed his burial.
It was Rob Europe's second time visiting Beale Street, Robert Johnson was singing “I believe, I believe I'll go
and though it was his first time there to compete among the back home” through the stereo speakers of Rob's Sonata
IBC quarterfinalists, it had come as a genuine surprise to us as we pulled up the muddied road leading to Little Zion
both that he hadn't made the semifinals cut. Missionary Baptist Church 20 or so minutes later.
Rob’s order of business after not making the cut, was “I feel like I should probably just Google this,” I said to
to try out the Gibson Factory's L-1. The L-1 is famously my recording iPhone. I exited the vehicle and had begun
associated with Robert Johnson, though Rob had found the shining a flashlight on each headstone I came across.
experience of playing it an oddly disappointing one. That's “But part of me doesn't really want to,” I narrated into the
when I knew what needed to be done. darkness. “Doesn't feel right.”

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