Robert Johnson: King Of The Delta Blues Singers (180g, 3 bonus tracks) [BLUES JOINT]

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition adds three bonus tracks to the 16 recordings on the original 1961 Columbia compilation. In 1980 it became the first album inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• 3 bonus tracks

About the album

Robert Johnson recorded his songs over two sessions, in 1936 and 1937, and his 78s sold a few thousand copies at most across the American south. A quarter-century later, producer John Hammond, who had gone looking for Johnson back in 1938, prodded Columbia to gather the best of them on one LP, right as the folk revival was hunting for its roots.

"Cross Road Blues" and "Hellhound on My Trail" are the eerie heart of it, "Terraplane Blues" was a regional hit in its day, and "Come On in My Kitchen" shows how much he could do with a quiet slide. "Preachin' Blues" and "Walkin' Blues" show off his driving rhythm, "Me and the Devil Blues" is pure late-night shiver, and the bonus cuts add "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Love in Vain."

The Wall Street Journal wrote that when the album made its way to England in the mid-1960s, it energized a generation of musicians, and the Los Angeles Times credited these recordings with laying the groundwork for Chicago blues. The original cover painting showed a faceless guitarist, since no photograph of Johnson had surfaced yet; the music turned out to be the better likeness anyway.

Also at Kops: more Robert Johnson on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Blues Joint (cat# 8013), a reissue of the 1961 compilation.