01	Crossroads (The Crossroad Blues)	Taj Mahal					02:52
	02	Traveling Riverside Blues	David 'Honeyboy' Edwards					02:58
	03	If I Had Posession Over Judgement Day	Chris Thomas King					03:06
	04	I'm a Steady Rollin' Man	Robert Lockwood Jr					03:19
	05	Me and the Devil Blues	Eric Gales					05:34
	06	Walkin' Blues	Keith Brown					05:05
	07	When You Got a Good Friend	Clarence Gatemouth Brown					04:41
	08	Kindhearted Woman Blues	Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin					04:00
	09	Dust My Broom	Joe Louis Walker					04:38
	10	Come on in My Kitchen	Chris Thomas King					04:46
	11	Stones in My Passway	Lucky Peterson					03:40
	12	Walkin' Blues	Susan Tedeschi					03:19
	13	Hellhound on My Trail	Alvin 'Youngblood' Hart					04:39
	14	Stop Breakin' Down Blues	Carl Weathersby					02:57
	15	Sweet Home Chicago	Pinetop Perkins					04:41
	16	Milkcow's Calf Blues	Robert Palmer					02:24

Telarc, 2001
CD 83521
DDD Pure Digital



Robert Johnson! Just the casual mention of this legendary blues artist's name is enough to elicit rapt attention from both the uninitiated and the initiated. In the rather brief period of ten years his complete recordings were issued, as well as previously unissued performances, he has been able to transcend being merely mysterious to a status closely approximating "God-like!" If, as has been quoted countless times, "Eric Clapton is God," then Johnson assuredly must be the "Father!"
Many people are aware of Robert Johnson's music and all-pervasive influence, although they may not be cognizant thereof. Anyone who has listened to popular music, rock, blues, and jazz, over the last thirty-five years or so has heard his music and the results of his influence via the music, poetry, and imitative efforts of artists and groups such as Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Taj Mahal, Captain Beefheart, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, and countless others of both major and minor status and varying degrees of success.
Johnson's music, itself a distillation of much of what is the best in blues playing and poetry, seems to lend itself extraordinarily to imitation, adaptation, and overall inspiration. Much in the manner which Johnson took these elements from his elders (Son House, Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson, Hambone Willie Newbern, etc.), for young Robert was assuredly one of blues' great listeners who apparently absorbed virtually everything that he heard, contemporary artists of the past thirty-five years have listened, studied, and learned their lessons exceedingly well. Their efforts have been variously interesting and at times truly inspired. I'm quite sure that Robert had a sly smile, wherever he was at the time, when the Rolling Stones had a certifiable pop hit with his original composition "Love In Vain!" Bear in mind that in Johnson's extremely circumspect career he had only one recording that could have even been classified as a regional hit, the region being Mississippi and the recording being "Terraplane Blues." To put Johnson, his life, and professional impact in proper perspective digest the following: Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell were all considerably better known and more successful. Even such artists that we have come, over the years, to consider as second or third echelon (like Texas Alexander) sold many more records and also had far better "deals" than Johnson.
Johnson was a straight-payment artist, as most blues artists of the Thirties were. He was paid an amount per side recorded, with no royalty participation based upon sales. All of the above mentioned were royalty artists, and received periodic payments in addition to the per side stipend received. To sum things up, although his status is of the loftiest nature today, in his time he was a relatively unknown bluesman, no more important than countless others who recorded. The intervening years have certainly changed the perception of this monumentally gifted artist, and perhaps no single individual has had more of an impact on blues in general and the artists of the past three and one half decades in particular.
This anthology is a collection of diverse approaches to Johnson's material. Some are straight interpretations, others have more of an individual spin. The performers range from a Johnson traveling companion, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, to long-time interpreter Taj Mahal to the only femme featured here, Susan Tedeschi. And although the voices may be different, what is present throughout is the majestic quality of the music of Robert Johnson.
- Lawrence Cohn Los Angeles, California