Gavin’s Blues Herritage Tour – Episode 4
Welcome to the third leg of my Blues Heritage Tour. I’m on a road trip in a beautiful red 1966 Ford Mustang working my north from New Orleans up Highway 61 – the blues highway – to Chicago.
Today I’m in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
‘I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees’ — said Robert Johnson
The junction between Highway 61 and Highway 49 in Clarksdale is a famous crossroads. This is the place where, according to legend, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for mastery over the guitar.
Meeting at the crossroads at midnight, the Devil tuned Johnson’s guitar so that Johnson could play any song he wanted.
Johnson’s peers were so taken aback at his sudden mastery of the guitar and his repertoire of songs in such as short space of time that the story gained momentum.
I’m here now with new guitar – bought specially for the trip. It’s a beautiful semi-acoustic Peerless Songbird but stone me if I can get a blues tune out of it. There’s something missing. Let’s see if I can get some inspiration here in Clarksdale.
Tags: clarksdale, Crossroads, robert johnson
