Harold G Jones

Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues singer, songwriter and musician.

 

His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians.

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Very little was known about Robert Johnson and two confirmed images of him were located in 1973, in the possession of his half-sister Carrie Thompson, but were not widely published until the late 1980s.

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A third photo, showing Robert Johnson posing with the blues musician Johnny Shines, was unearthed by a New York guitar shop employee called Zeke Schein and was debuted in the November 2008 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

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Zeke is an accomplished guitarist and has a truly remarkable style of playing blues guitar.  It is so remarkable that if you close your eyes and listen to him, you are immediately transported to the 1930's Delta.

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On a recent trip to New York, I called past my usual guitar shop pit stops, one being Matt Umanovs on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village,  I noticed a book on the sales counter with the recent picture of Robert Johnson featured on the cover,   The book told the story of how the photo was located and the journey the discoverer embarked upon in sharing it with the world.

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The author of the book just so happened to be an employee in the store and we soon struck up a conversation focused on Robert Johnson and the Blues.  Zeke graciously signed a copy of his book and it was only when he asked my name, that suddenly the "Blues" planets lined up.  Somehow, Zeke remembered selling me my pride and joy, a 1930 National Duolian, 15 years previous.

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The Blues world is an amazing place to hang out and my distant link to Robert Johnson became a little closer, thanks to Zeke.