I sing city blues... My style of singing has nothing to do with the part of the country I come from. It comes from my soul within. The heartaches and the things that have happened to me in my life - that's what makes a good blues singer - Lonnie Johnson, from Giles Oakley's The Devil's Music, BBC
I?ve just completed an in-depth article on the life and music of Blind Willie Johnson, tapping into ? and in some cases untangling ? every source I could find. These include Johnson?s death certificate and draft card, quotes from his wives Willie B. Harris and Angeline Johnson and his 1930s travelling companion Blind Willie McTell, the original research published in the 1950s all the way through Michael Corcoran?s recent investigative work, and insights from Ry Cooder and Johnny Winter and some members of the Weenie Campbell community.
I?ve also folded-in some interesting information from a pre-World War I brochure from Marlin, Texas, where he grew up, and the Depression-era WPA study of Beaumont, where he spent his final years. And, of course, observations drawn from listening to all of his 78s. I wish I?d known of some of this material when I wrote the liners for Mojo/Columbia?s Blind Willie Johnson: Dark Was the Night CD!
I've just finished it. You've brilliantly brought together all known disparate pieces of the BWJ jigsaw into one cohesive, informative whole. Keep on keeping on.
It is indeed informative and a okay summary. Especially some good work on the cities where Johnson played. But I still think that the recent work by Shane Ford is the best work I've seen so far on Johnson. This would have been a great article if it had been written a few years ago but with the new research, I'm not sure how you can write on Johnson without it.
Before I read the above sources, what's the verdict regarding his secular sides, which he supposedly recorded under the name Blind Texas Marlin (if I'm remembering correctly)?
Before I read the above sources, what's the verdict regarding his secular sides, which he supposedly recorded under the name Blind Texas Marlin (if I'm remembering correctly)?
You are remembering correctly. To quote the note that follows the Marlin entry in B&GR4 (1997):
They may be non-religious titles by Blind Willie Johnson, who is known to have been born in Marlin Texas. Matrices 147568 to 147571 are religious titles by Johnson
The 1969 B&GR contained an entry for Marlin but song titles then were unknown. This entry notes that Adjacent matrix numbers are by Blind Willie Johnson and Washington Phillips, which indeed they are (Wednesday 5, December 1928).
Not that this gets us anywhere......
What light does Shane Ward through on this?
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 12:00:15 PM by Bunker Hill »