Loading details…
Artist
Blind Willie Johnson
12+ albums
bluesdelta bluesgospelfolkClassic Blues
about
Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was a gospel blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. While the lyrics of his songs were usually religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. It is characterized by his slide guitar accompaniment and tenor voice, and his frequent use of a lower-register 'growl' or false bass voice. According to his death certificate, Johnson was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas. (Earlier, Temple, Texas had been suggested as his birthplace.) When he was five, he told his father he wanted to be a preacher and then made a cigar box guitar for himself. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried soon after her death. Johnson was not born blind. Although it is not certain how he lost his sight, his alleged widow Angeline Johnson told Samuel Charters that when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man; and that she in spite blinded young Willie by throwing lye in his face. Johnson made 30 commercial recording studio record sides (29 songs) in five separate sessions for Columbia Records from 1927–1930. On some of these recordings Johnson uses a fast rhythmic picking style, while on others he plays slide guitar. According to a reputed one-time acquaintance, Blind Willie McTell (1898–1959), Johnson played with a brass ring; but the bluesman Tom Shaw, interviewed by Guido van Rijn in 1972, says that he used a knife. However, in enlargement, the only kn
top songs
1
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
99,9622It's Nobody's Fault but Mine
60,5823John the Revelator
52,1794Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed
40,4575Let Your Light Shine On Me
35,1616God Moves On the Water
32,5667I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole
30,1198The Soul of a Man
28,6309If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down
26,58410Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground
25,372albums
Dark Was the Night (Mojo Workin'- Blues for the Next Generation)
Dark Was the Night
Sweeter as the Years Go By
The Complete Blind Willie Johnson
The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (disc 1)
The Roots Of Led Zeppelin
The Soul of a Man
Praise God I'm Satisfied
Public Enemies
Dark Was The Night (Mojo Workin'- Blues For The Next Generation)
It's Nobody's Fault But Mine - The Best Of
Rough Guide to Blind Willie Johnson