Tommy Johnson

NOTE: Listen to this brief clip of Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues" and his unique falsetto style.

Here's a great article about bluesman Tommy Johnson, the "real" Johnson behind the crossroads myth:

In the Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou, a Mississippi bluesman named Tommy Johnson reveals that he sold his soul to the devil in order to improve his musical skills.

Many moviegoers likely thought the character, played by real life bluesman Chris Thomas King, was based on Robert Johnson (1911-1938), whose haunting music and purported pact with the devil continues to enthrall modern audiences.

The inordinate amount of attention given to Robert Johnson by blues fans today is a sore spot for Jackson's Vera Johnson-Collins, who has dedicated most of the last decade to publicizing the legacy of her uncle, the "real" Tommy Johnson.

A generation older than Robert Johnson (and no relation), Tommy Johnson (1896-1956) arguably had a greater impact on early Mississippi blues, but his contributions remain largely unrecognized.

At 10 a.m. Friday, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker honoring Johnson will be unveiled in downtown Crystal Springs, his longtime home.

On Saturday, the second annual Tommy Johnson Celebration, organized by Johnson-Collins and held at Crystal Spring's National Guard Armory, celebrates Johnson's legacy with a mix of modern and traditional blues acts.

Tommy Johnson was born on a plantation between Crystal Springs and Terry, and as a child learned to play guitar from his older brother LeDell. In his early teens, Tommy Johnson ran away to the Delta, where he played with seminal bluesmen, including Charley Patton.

Upon returning to Crystal Springs two years later, LeDell later recalled, Johnson's skills had improved markedly.

LeDell, who became a minister in the 1920s, said that his brother explained the change as resulting from a midnight encounter at the crossroads with a large black man, who tuned Johnson's guitar and played a song before handing it back to him.

Johnson didn't mention the devil explicitly, but over the years the details of his version of the crossroads myth - which ultimately derives from West African religious traditions - has been incorporated into popular narratives about Robert Johnson.

Robert Johnson himself may well have borrowed the story from Tommy Johnson; he was certainly influenced by popular bluesman Peetie Wheatstraw, who billed himself as "the devil's son-in-law."

Regardless of the truth of the story, Tommy Johnson went on to become a popular performer and serve as an inspiration to dozens of his contemporaries. Between 1928 and 1930 he recorded for the Victor and Paramount labels. Classics included his signature Big Road Blues, Big Fat Mama Blues, Maggie Campbell Blues and Canned Heat Blues.

The latter refers to the Prohibition-era practice of drinking cooking fuel such as Sterno, and later inspired the name of the blues-rock group Canned Heat.

Johnson's songs and distinctive falsetto moan were adopted by many of his contemporaries, including the Mississippi Sheiks and Howlin' Wolf, whose cover of Cool Drink of Water Blues includes Johnson's macabre line "I asked for water/she gave me gasoline."

Johnson didn't record again after 1930, reportedly due to problems with song rights, but he remained a popular performer in the broader Jackson area.

It's likely that heavy drinking habits adversely affected his health, and he died in 1956 after playing at a party in Crystal Springs.

Johnson-Collins, the daughter of Johnson's brother (and bluesman) Mager, never knew her uncle.

In the '90s she began doing genealogical work on her family, and in the process was shocked to find out about Tommy Johnson's great influence on the blues tradition.

"I got more and more eager about finding out more about Tommy," she says, "and as I did more research I began rethinking some of the things I did in my younger life and associate them with him. I used to go out with my father when I was younger, visiting juke joints in Crystal Springs and Jackson where he had played as well.

"I've traveled extensively to different states to locate relatives, one as old as 92, and hear their stories about Uncle Tommy. I'm hoping that all this research will make my relatives want to come back home and share my vision of letting people know about his great impact on traditional country blues."

In 2001 the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund and Johnson's family unveiled a new headstone for Tommy Johnson at a ceremony in Crystal Springs, but the overdue recognition was bittersweet.

"After the unveiling we realized that we wouldn't be able to place it on his gravesite because the road to the cemetery needed repair," says Johnson-Collins. "The adjoining land had grown over it.

"For the last six years I've been fighting to try to get the road reopened and the cemetery restored. I think that we have finally made some progress. The MDA (Mississippi Development Authority) has promised a grant, and the Copiah County Board of Supervisors has offered to build the road."

She also says that local officials have recently rallied around her efforts in tandem with the Mississippi Blues Trail marker.

The program, administered by MDA and the Mississippi Blues Commission, requires local communities to bear some of the cost, and Copiah County stepped up early to pay for markers for both Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, who was born in Hazlehurst.

This year's festival features many artists who specialize in acoustic blues, including England's Bob Hall, who flew over the Atlantic to appear at the festival last year, and Louis "Gearshifter" Youngblood, whose grandfather and great-aunt both learned directly from Johnson in the 1930s.

Willie King, who specializes in the music of Howlin' Wolf, will appear as will Jesse Robinson and his group. Robinson, a member of the Mississippi Blues Commission, has attended and performed at numerous Blues Marker dedications.

"These markers and homegrown festivals bring local awareness to blues scenes that were here years ago that people wouldn't have otherwise known about," says Robinson. "And what's really great is that the communities are getting involved and are very supportive."

Festival proceeds will be directed to efforts to restore the road and cemetery.

Written by Scott Barretta, an Oxford-based writer and music critic.