"Lyrics" Soundclips
 "I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole"
"Nobody's Fault But Mine"
A coarse-throated, gruff gospel singer who occasionally used the blues idiom to
carry his religious messages, Blind Willie Johnson was also a superb slide guitarist.
However, unlike more noted Delta slide players whose guitar styles frequently tore
at a song's melody or charged it with uncontrolled passion, Johnson forged a style
in which the notes he played were perfect accompaniments to the notes he sang.
Little is known of Johnson's life that can be substantiated. He was born around
the turn of the century. Sometime between the ages of three and seven he was blinded,
reputedly by a stepmother who threw lye into his eyes during a fight with his father.
Johnson, like other blind bluesmen in the prewar period, earned his living by
singing on Texas street corners. He also became a Baptist preacher.
In 1927 he married and shortly thereafter relocated to Dallas, where he recorded
for the Columbia label. A batch of the songs he cut ultimately became classics
and served as his substantial contribution to gospel-blues. Among the songs
for which Johnson is most known are "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time,"
"If I Had My Way," "Let Your Light Shine on Me," "You're Gonna Need Somebody
on Your Bond," and "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed."
Despite his brief career as a recording artist - he didn't record after 1930- Johnson
continued to perform throughout the 1930s and 1940s He died in 1947; reportedly
his house burned to the ground and, after sleeping in its remains, he caught pneumonia.
source http://www.ibiblio.org/
jimmy/folkden/bwj.html
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