BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON
Blind Willie Johnson produced a series of ominous gospel recordings in 1920s and 1930s that combined virtuoso slide guitar, rough, powerful vocals, and songs that as often as not told of an angry God wreaking vengeance on a sinful world. Johnson’s music electrified listeners during the depths of the Great Depression. Although Johnson recorded exclusively religious music, the earthy feel of his voice and guitar are the equal of any country blues artist recorded during his time. The music that electrified Johnson’s contemporaries, black and white alike, continued to exert a powerful attraction at the end of the century.
It is generally agreed that Johnson was born in a small town just South of Waco near Temple, Texas January 22, 1897. His mother died when he was about four years old, and his father, George Johnson, eventually remarried. When Johnson was about seven years old, his father and stepmother fought and the stepmother threw lye water, apparently at the father, but the lye got in Willie Johnson's eyes and blinded him.
It is generally agreed that Johnson was born in a small town just South of Waco near Temple, Texas January 22, 1897. His mother died when he was about four years old, and his father, George Johnson, eventually remarried. When Johnson was about seven years old, his father and stepmother fought and the stepmother threw lye water, apparently at the father, but the lye got in Willie Johnson's eyes and blinded him.
Johnson’s interest in both music and religion began at an early age. When he was only five, legend has it, he was telling folks he was going to become a preacher when he grew up. Around the same time, his father him built a cigar box guitar. It is not known who taught him to play guitar, but he is said to have picked up his rough false bass singing style from a blind gospel singer in Marlin named Madkin Butler. By the time Johnson had reached his teens he was singing and playing guitar in the streets of Marlin, summer and winter alike, for the spare change passers-by might offer. In 1925, he was living in Hearne, Texas where his father did farm work. George would drive Willie into town each morning, where he would find a place under one of the awnings on the main street and perform. With three profitable brickyards, Hearne’s local economy was humming and Willie made good money there. It was so good that Blind Lemon Jefferson, the first great star of recorded country blues, would play the same streets at the same time Johnson was there.
As he got older, Johnson began earning money by playing his guitar, one of the few avenues left to a blind man to earn a living. Instead of a bottleneck, Johnson actually played slide with a pocketknife. Over the years, Johnson played guitar most often in an open D tuning, picking single-note melodies, while using his slide and strumming a bass line with his thumb. He was, however, known to play in a different tuning and without the slide on a few rare occasions. Regardless of his excellent blues technique and sound, Johnson didn't want to be a bluesman, for he was a passionate believer in the Bible. So, he began singing the gospel and interpreting Negro spirituals. He became a Baptist preacher and brought his sermons and music to the streets of the surrounding cities. While performing in Dallas, he met a woman named Angeline and the two married in 1927. Angeline added 19th century hymns to Johnson's repertoire, and the two performed around the Dallas and Waco areas.
At some point during the next two years Johnson moved to Dallas and was playing the streets there when he met his wife-to-be, Angeline. "A tall gangling man with a thin mustache; a dark intense man," as Sam Charters described him in The Country Blues, Johnson was singing "If I Had My Way" when Angeline saw him for the first time. When he left, she followed behind, singing the song herself until he finally noticed her. When he did she invited him to her house to sing hymns. Angeline later told Charters what happened next: she sat down at her piano and belted out a version of "If I Had My Way" that so impressed Willie that he urged heron shouting "Go on, gal, tear it up!" When she had finished singing, she made him a gumbo which he apparently enjoyed so much that he proposed marriage then and there. The gumbo was their courtship; the wedding was held June 22, 1927, the very next day.
At some point during the next two years Johnson moved to Dallas and was playing the streets there when he met his wife-to-be, Angeline. "A tall gangling man with a thin mustache; a dark intense man," as Sam Charters described him in The Country Blues, Johnson was singing "If I Had My Way" when Angeline saw him for the first time. When he left, she followed behind, singing the song herself until he finally noticed her. When he did she invited him to her house to sing hymns. Angeline later told Charters what happened next: she sat down at her piano and belted out a version of "If I Had My Way" that so impressed Willie that he urged heron shouting "Go on, gal, tear it up!" When she had finished singing, she made him a gumbo which he apparently enjoyed so much that he proposed marriage then and there. The gumbo was their courtship; the wedding was held June 22, 1927, the very next day.
Johnson’s first recording date took place later that year on December 3, 1927 for Columbia Records in Dallas. He recorded six sides, all religious songs, but infused with a passionate intensity that leapt from the lacquer grooves of the 78s. It was just Johnson’s voice and his guitar. But his emotional slide playing, like a second vocalist, engaged in a beautiful call and response with his own singing. Johnson is said to have used a pocketknife when playing slide; however executed, it possessed a matchless precision. It is even more remarkable considering Texas has no bottleneck or slide guitar tradition— Johnson must have been essentially self-taught. He also sang with two distinct singing voices: one a soft tenor, the other, a growling false bass that quaked like the voice of an angry god. He contrasts them to beautiful effect on his version of "Let Your Light Shine On Me."
Willie’s first release, in January 1928, was "I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole" backed with "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed;" his second which came out the following spring, was "Nobody’s Fault But Mine" b/w "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground." A contemporary reviewer, quoted by Charters, enthused of the latter, "Blind Willie Johnson’s violent, tortured and abysmal shouts and groans and his inspired guitar in a primitive and frightening Negro religious song ’Nobody’s Business but Mine!’"
After his first session Johnson and Angeline moved a number of times, first to Waco, then Temple, before finally settling down and buying a house in Beaumont. In December 1928 he returned to Dallas to record once again for Columbia, this time four songs. The records, "I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge" b/w "Jesus Is Coming Soon" and "I Just Can’t Keep From Crying" b/w "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning," were released in February and May 1929 respectively. It was long assumed that the female vocalist on these and later Blind Willie Johnson records was Angeline. However, David Evans’s liner notes to Sweeter As the Years Go By, speculated that it might in actuality have been Willie B. Harris, a woman uncovered by blues researcher Dan Williams. Harris claimed not only to have been the sweet voice on most of Johnson’s records, but also his wife— common-law presumably—when he proposed to Angeline! Interestingly, according to Evans in her 1950s interviews with Charters, Angeline never once claimed she had sung on any of her husband’s recordings.
In December 1929 Columbia paid for Johnson to travel to New Orleans to record again and Angeline remained at home with the Johnson’s new baby. For this session, a soprano from a local church was brought in to sing with Johnson. He remained in New Orleans nearly one month, playing for new audiences there. According to one story, Johnson was singing his passionate Sampson song "If I Had My Way I’d Tear This Building Down" in front of the New Orleans Customs House and police nearly arrested him for attempting to incite a riot. Whether or not it is true, it testifies to the power and energy of Johnson’s version of the song.
As Stephen Calt points out in his liner notes for Praise God I’m Satisfied, the fact that Columbia waited a full year between Johnson’s recording sessions probably indicates that they were disappointed with his sales. In fact, in early 1929 Johnson sold about 5,000 records. By contrast, Barbecue Bob and Bessie Smith Columbia’s most popular artists, sold about 6,000 and from 9,000-10,000 respectively. As the depression deepened, however, and interest in religion surged, Blind Willie Johnson’s popularity jumped, too. He continued to sell around 5,000 records annually, but Barbecue Bob’s sales dropped to 2,000 and Smith’s to 3000.
Johnson’s session took place on April 30, 1930 in Atlanta Georgia. He cut ten sides on this last visit, concluding with the widely-copied "You’ll Need Somebody On Your Bond." The Depression eventually cut drastically into Johnson’s sales, but in November 1934 his was still the second largest listing in the Columbia race catalog, after Bessie Smith. That he continued to be popular is shown by the fact that four of his records were re-issued in 1935, a rare occurrence in race recordings of the time. Unusual also was Johnson’s popularity among early white connoisseurs of black folk music.
Once his recording career had ended, Willie and Angeline Johnson continued to live in Beaumont with their children. He earned his living as a street musician, and when Charters called on them in the 1950s, store owners in town still remembered him as a dignified, neatly dressed man. Johnson sang regularly at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church and at regional religious gatherings, as well.
Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of several Texas cities including Beaumont, Texas. A city directory shows that in 1945, a Rev. W.J. Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street, Beaumont, Texas. This is the same address listed on Johnson's death certificate. In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed in the August/September Texas heat. He lived like this until he contracted malarial fever and died on September 18, 1945. (The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis and blindness as contributing factors.)
Once his recording career had ended, Willie and Angeline Johnson continued to live in Beaumont with their children. He earned his living as a street musician, and when Charters called on them in the 1950s, store owners in town still remembered him as a dignified, neatly dressed man. Johnson sang regularly at the Mt. Olive Baptist Church and at regional religious gatherings, as well.
Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of several Texas cities including Beaumont, Texas. A city directory shows that in 1945, a Rev. W.J. Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street, Beaumont, Texas. This is the same address listed on Johnson's death certificate. In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed in the August/September Texas heat. He lived like this until he contracted malarial fever and died on September 18, 1945. (The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis and blindness as contributing factors.)
In a later interview, his wife, Angeline said she tried to take him to a hospital but they refused to admit him because he was blind, while other sources report that his refusal was due to being black. And although there is some question as to where his exact grave location is, Blanchette Cemetery (which is the cemetery listed on the death certificate but location previously unknown) was officially located by two researchers in 2009. In 2010, those same researchers erected a monument to Johnson in the cemetery, but his exact gravesite remains unknown.
Johnson’s religious music exerted a potent influence on secular musicians, in particular blues artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mance Lipscomb and Muddy Waters, as well as rock players such as Ry Cooder and Alex Chilton. His music and popularity outlived him by decades. Bootlegs of the 1935 reissues, which appeared in the 1950s credited to ’The Blind Pilgrim," sold well judging from the number that were subsequently found in private collections, according to David Evans. Even more remarkable, as late as the 1970s Columbia Records included a Blind Willie Johnson song on an anthology The Gospel Sound. Black gospel stations played the cut regularly and were deluged with calls from local churches who wanted to book the unknown artist to sing at church events. Little did they know he had been dead for twenty-five years.
Johnson’s religious music exerted a potent influence on secular musicians, in particular blues artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mance Lipscomb and Muddy Waters, as well as rock players such as Ry Cooder and Alex Chilton. His music and popularity outlived him by decades. Bootlegs of the 1935 reissues, which appeared in the 1950s credited to ’The Blind Pilgrim," sold well judging from the number that were subsequently found in private collections, according to David Evans. Even more remarkable, as late as the 1970s Columbia Records included a Blind Willie Johnson song on an anthology The Gospel Sound. Black gospel stations played the cut regularly and were deluged with calls from local churches who wanted to book the unknown artist to sing at church events. Little did they know he had been dead for twenty-five years.
Click here to return to the Why I Sing The Blues main page.