Up Jumped the Devil
Page 26
14Don Law, Letter to Frank Driggs, April 10, 1961.
15Patricia Schroeder, Robert Johnson: Mythmaking and Contemporary American Culture (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004), 26–27; Jas Obrecht, “Robert Johnson,” in Blues Guitar: The Men Who Made the Music (San Francsico: Miller Freeman, 1993), 12.
16Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
17Hoffman, “Robert Lockwood, Jr.,” 167.
Chapter 12: Kind Hearted Women
1Pete Welding, “The Robert Johnson I Knew, Pt 2,” Blues Unlimited 66, 1969, 15.
2H. C. Speir, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pearl, Mississippi, April 10, 1964.
3Dave Rubin, Robert Johnson: The New Transcriptions (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 1999).
4Hyatt, Hoodoo, 349.
5Debra DeSalvo, The Language of the Blues (New York: Billboard Books, 2006), 64.
6Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
7Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
8Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
9Shirley Ratisseau, “The Girl Who Met Robert Johnson,” Austin Chronicle, August 3, 2012.
10Agustín Gurza, “Frontera Project: Berlanga y Montalvo: The Blues and the Borderlands,” Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, February 11, 2015, http://frontera.library.ucla.edu/blog/2016/02/berlanga-y-montalvo-blues-and-borderlands.
11LaVere, Complete Recordings, 24.
12Robert Avant-Mier, “Heard It on the X,” in Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life, ed. Michael C. Keith (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008), 54.
13Pearson and McCulloch, Robert Johnson, 25–26.
14Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
15Booker Miller, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, April 20, 1968.
16Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
17Booker Miller, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, April 20, 1968.
18Hyatt, Hoodoo, 349.
19Pearson and McCulloch, Robert Johnson, 77.
20Timothy Matovina and Jesús F. de la Teja, eds., Recollections of a Tejano Life: Antonio Menchaca in Texas History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013).
21H. C. Speir, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pearl, Mississippi, April 10, 1964.
22H. C. Speir, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pearl, Mississippi, April 10, 1964.
23Willie Mae Powell, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
24Willie Mae Powell, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
25Willie Mae Powell, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
Chapter 13: I Left with My Head Cut
1Lester, “I Can Make My Own Songs,” 41–42.
2Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
3Pete Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” Living Blues 22 (Jul.–Aug. 1975): 25.
4Johnny Shines, Blues Narrative Stage: “Guitar Styles,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 1991. Festival recordings tape FP-1991-DT-0048.
5Johnny Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” in The American Folk Music Occasional, Chris Strachwitz and Pete Welding, eds., Vol. 2 (New York: Oak, 1970), 31.
6Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 31.
7Barry Lee Pearson, Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005), 172.
8Robert Lockwood, Blues Narrative Stage: “Guitar Styles,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 1991. Festival recordings tape FP-1991-DT-0048.
9Pete Welding, “The Robert Johnson I Knew: An Interview with Henry Townsend,” Down Beat 35 (October 31, 1968): 18, 32, Reprinted in Blues Unlimited no. 64 (July 1969): 10.
10Henry Townsend, Blues Narrative Stage: “Guitar Styles,” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 1991. Festival recordings tape FP-1991-DT-0048.
11Ishmon Bracey, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, December 30 and 31, 1967, Hernando, Mississippi, Inventory #tta0182dd, track #7.
12Robert Lockwood, interview by Robert Santelli, International Folk Alliance, 2000, FP-2006-CT-0187.
13Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
14Obrecht, “Johnny Shines.”
15Johnny Shines, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
16Shines, Blues Narrative Stage.
17Shines, interview with Lawrence Cohn, May 1985.
18Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
19Johnny Shines, “Remembering Robert Johnson,” American Folk Music Occasional 2, Oak Publications, 1970.
20Townsend, Blues Narrative Stage.
21Shines, Blues Narrative Stage.
22Johnny Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
23Johnny Shines, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
24Guralnick, Searching, 26–27.
25Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines.”
Chapter 14: Gotta Keep Movin’, Blues Fallin’ Down Like Hail
1H. C. Speir, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pearl, Mississippi, April 10, 1964.
2Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 31.
3William H. Wiggins Jr., “Juneteenth: A Red Spot Day on the Texas Calendar,” in Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore, eds. Francis Edward Abernathy and Carolyn Fielder Satterwhite (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1996), 243.
4Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield, Deep Ellum: The Other Side of Dallas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013), 78.
5Darwin Payne, “The Spirit of Enterprise,” in Dallas, An illustrated History (Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, 1982), 157–185.
6Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the City of Dallas, 1936–1942, The WPA Dallas Guide and History (Denton, TX: UNT Digital Library, 1992), 296–297, http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28336.
7Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield, The Dallas Music Scene 1920s–1960s (Charleston, NC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014), 47.
8Alan Govenar, phone interview with Bruce Conforth, January 12, 2019.
9Marvin “Smokey” Montgomery, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, June 10, 1959.
10Marvin “Smokey” Montgomery, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, June 10, 1959.
11Smokey Montgomery, Can’t You Hear The Wind Howl, DVD.
12Catherine Yronwode, “Foot Track Magic,” in Hoodoo in Theory and Practice, http://www.luckymojo.com/foottrack.html.
13Wiggins, “Juneteenth,” 244.
14Yronwode, “Foot Track Magic.”
15Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 29.
16Willie Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchener Plantation, Mississippi, May 18, 1968.
17H. C. Speir, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Pearl, Mississippi, April 10, 1964.
18Wald, Escaping the Delta, 177.
19Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
20Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 31.
21Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 31.
22Joe Callicott, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Hernando, Mississippi, December 30–31, 1967.
Chapter 15: When I Leave This Town I’m Gon’ Bid You Fare, Farewell
1John Henry Hammond II, “An Experience in Jazz History,” in Dominique-René de Lerma, ed., Black Music in Our Culture: Curricular Ideas on the Subjects, Materials, and Problems (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1970), 42–53.
2Henry Johnson (John Henry Hammond II), New Masses, March 2, 1937, 29.
3John Henry Hammond II, New Masses, July 1937, 31.
4Townsend, Blues Narrative Stage.
5Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 29–30.
6Welding, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
7Shines, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
8Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
9Shines,
“The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
10Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 33.
11Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 33.
12Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
13Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
14Shines, Blues Narrative Stage. This part of Shines’s narrative helps corroborate the dates in question since the John Gaston Hospital in Memphis did not open until the second half of 1936. Since we have accounted for Johnson’s whereabouts through the end of 1936 and into early 1937, the end of that year is the only possibility.
15Obrecht, “Johnny Shines,” 9.
16Obrecht, “Johnny Shines,” 8.
17Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
18Shines, Blues Narrative Stage.
19Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 33.
20Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 30.
21Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 30.
22Shines, Blues Narrative Stage.
23Until this current research the pastor’s name was always believed to be Moten instead of Morton. It is probably for this reason that no previous information about him or this incident has ever been published, not unlike the mistaken spelling of Ike Zimmerman’s name.
24mtzion, “History,” http://mtzionfgc.wikifoundry.com/page/History, January 10, 2008.
25Paul McIntyre, Black Pentecostal Music in Windsor, Paper #15 (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Folk Culture Studies, 1976), 20.
26Obrecht, “Johnny Shines.”
27Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 30.
28Obrecht, “Johnny Shines.”
29Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines,” 29.
30Shines interview with Lawrence Cohn, May 1985.
31Victoria Spivey, discussion with John Paul Hammond, when he recorded for her record label in the 1960s.
32McCormick letter and conversation to Bruce Conforth, March 23, 2006.
33Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
34Shines, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
Chapter 16: You May Bury My Body Down by the Highway Side
1Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
2Welding, “Ramblin’ Johnny Shines.”
3McCormick, letter and phone conversation with Conforth, February 12, 2007.
4Honeyboy Edwards, The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1997), 99–100.
5Shines, “The Robert Johnson I Knew,” 32.
6Rosie Eskridge, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
7Rosie Eskridge, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
8Cedell Davis claimed that the woman who gave Robert the poison was named “Craphouse Bea.” According to Mack McCormick her real name was Beatrice Davis, the young wife of R. D. “Ralph” Davis.
9Edwards, The World Don’t Owe, 103–104.
10Rosie Eskridge, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
11Rosie Eskridge, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
12Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out,’” 40.
13Willie Coffee, interview with LaVere, Hellhounds on My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson (WinStar TV & Video, 1999), DVD.
14Mack McCormick, phone invterview with Bruce Conforth, May 14, 2008.
15Rosie Eskridge, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Greenwood, Mississippi, June 2001.
Epilogue: Last Fair Deal Goin’ Down
1John Henry Hammond II, “Jim Crow Blues,” New Masses, December 13, 1938, 27–28.
2Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began (New York: Pantheon, 1993), 14. A search of the Alan Lomax archives and his field notes for the 1942 trip reveals no information about his meeting Johnson’s mother. To report a conversation with such specificity one would imagine that field notes were used, but none containing this dialogue exist. There is no evidence, therefore, to suggest that such an event actually took place.
3Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began (New York: Pantheon, 1993), 14–15.
“A compelling narrative of the life of Robert Johnson, succinct and poignant, revealing the immensity of his blues and the mysteries of the man, debunking myths that have overshadowed the truth while illuminating the memories and first-person accounts diligently collected by the authors over more than five decades.”
—ALAN GOVENAR, author of Texas Blues, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Stompin’ at the Savoy
“It is really incredible that after all these years celebrating the work of Robert Johnson, new information still keeps emerging. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in this man’s haunting legacy.”
—JOHN MAYALL, OBE, legendary blues musician and member, Blues Hall of Fame
BRUCE CONFORTH, former professor of folklore, blues, popular culture, and American history at the University of Michigan, was the founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
GAYLE DEAN WARDLOW is a highly regarded blues historian who has amassed one of the world’s largest collections of prewar blues records. His book Chasin’ That Devil Music is a classic of blues literature. He lives in Pensacola, Florida.
Jacket design: Jonathan Hahn
Jacket photo: Robert Johnson Photo Booth Self-Portrait
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