Blind Willie Johnson--If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down & Cold is the Ground, Dark is the Night--2 MP3s
Blind Willie Johnson 1902(?) - 1947(?)
"Blind Willie" Johnson was born in Texas about 1902. Some reports say it was in Marlin, others say near Temple and the family then moved to Marlin. At age 5, Johnson announced to his father that he was going to become a preacher and fashioned his first guitar out of a cigar box.
Johnson's father remarried following the death of young Johnson's mother. He caught Johnson's stepmother cheating and beat her her up. Her response was to throw lye into 7 year old Willie Johnson's face to deliberately blind him.
Willie taught himself to play the guitar and accompanied himself using a pocketknife for a slide to mimic his voice. Johnson's father would take him into the town of Hearne and leave him to play on the corner every Saturday with a tin cup tied around his neck.
At age twenty-five he married a young singer named Angelina, sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson (1915-76). Angelina accompanied Johnson on some of his recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930.
Although some blues singers tussled with the pull between the blues and religious music, Blind Willie came down firmly on the side of the religious -- in a way. He had the power to make a religious song sound like the blues and a blues song sound holy.
He sang in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar with "uncanny left-handed strength, accuracy and agility." So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans Customs House singing "If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down."
Ry Cooder once called Johnson's "Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground" the most "transcendent piece in all American music." Additionally, his "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" is another masterpiece of slide work.
Ironically, Johnson died of pneumonia following a fire that burned down his home. He slept on wet bedding his wife had prepared for him, got sick and passed on to blues heaven.
from Big Road Blues
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground--Blind Willie Johnson
If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down--Blind Willie Johnson
"Blind Willie" Johnson was born in Texas about 1902. Some reports say it was in Marlin, others say near Temple and the family then moved to Marlin. At age 5, Johnson announced to his father that he was going to become a preacher and fashioned his first guitar out of a cigar box.
Johnson's father remarried following the death of young Johnson's mother. He caught Johnson's stepmother cheating and beat her her up. Her response was to throw lye into 7 year old Willie Johnson's face to deliberately blind him.
Willie taught himself to play the guitar and accompanied himself using a pocketknife for a slide to mimic his voice. Johnson's father would take him into the town of Hearne and leave him to play on the corner every Saturday with a tin cup tied around his neck.
At age twenty-five he married a young singer named Angelina, sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin'" Robinson (1915-76). Angelina accompanied Johnson on some of his recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930.
Although some blues singers tussled with the pull between the blues and religious music, Blind Willie came down firmly on the side of the religious -- in a way. He had the power to make a religious song sound like the blues and a blues song sound holy.
He sang in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar with "uncanny left-handed strength, accuracy and agility." So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans Customs House singing "If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down."
Ry Cooder once called Johnson's "Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground" the most "transcendent piece in all American music." Additionally, his "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" is another masterpiece of slide work.
Ironically, Johnson died of pneumonia following a fire that burned down his home. He slept on wet bedding his wife had prepared for him, got sick and passed on to blues heaven.
from Big Road Blues
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground--Blind Willie Johnson
If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down--Blind Willie Johnson
posted by Unknown at 7:27 PM
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