Robert Johnson Records His Blues

In late November 1936, an itinerant musician named Robert Johnson entered room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Arranged by talent scout H. C. Speir and salesman Ernie Oertle, the session brought Johnson before record producer Don Law. Over several days, Johnson cut sixteen selections accompanied only by his own guitar. Working within the three-minute limit of a commercial 78-rpm shellac disc, he captured songs that would become pillars of American music, including "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Cross Road Blues." The tracks stood in stark contrast to his usual work as a wandering entertainer who played popular dance tunes on street corners and in rural juke joints.

Prior to the San Antonio sessions, Johnson lived largely outside the commercial recording industry. Born in Mississippi around May 1911, he spent parts of his youth in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Delta. Older Delta musicians such as Son House initially remembered him as an awkward novice on the guitar. Johnson later disappeared from his usual circuit, studying instrument technique under Isaiah Zimmerman, who practiced in local cemeteries at night. When Johnson returned to Robinsonville, his sudden technical command astonished peers, later feeding a pervasive folklore that he had obtained his talent through a nocturnal pact with the devil at a rural crossroads.