Two Miles High Music

The tradition of Texas gospel blues survives in the lore and recordings of Blind Willie Johnson.No Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: JOHNSON,BLIND WILLIETitle: COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF BLIND WStreet Release Date: 04/20/1993

In the history of recorded blues and spirituals, there is no greater singer and songwriter than Blind Willie Johnson. With a vocal delivery ranging from raw rage to tenderness wedded to his talking guitar, Blind Willie's recordings are as powerful today as when he made them, from 1927 to 1930. Listen to monuments "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time," "I Just Can't Keep from Crying," "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine," and the otherworldly "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground," and try to find equally visceral conviction any other place or time. His "If I Had My Way I'd Tear The Building Down" which got him arrested when Blind Willie unknowingly sang it in front of a U.S. government building in Dallas, became a '60s icon. Years later, he caught pneumonia, but when treatment was sought, he was told the hospital did not treat blind people, so he returned home and died. --Alan Greenberg

Along with Robert Johnson, Son House, Charley Patton, and others, Blind Willie Johnson was one of the founding fathers of the blues. This 16-song collection features some of his best, most classic work, a distillation of the 30 songs he recorded (all of which are available on Complete Recordings of Blind Willie Johnson). Unlike his peers, however, Johnson's focus was on spiritual music, which he performed in church and on street corners, his chilling, gravelly voice complemented by guitar work that is nothing short of exquisite. Many of the songs taken up and popularized by Johnson's contemporaries and successors were written by him, and they're all here: "John the Revelator," "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed," "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down," "Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying," "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine," and of course "Dark Was the Night--Cold Was the Ground." Dark Was the Night is a worthy introduction to this seminal artist's work. --Genevieve Williams

Atlantic's short-lived Blues Originals series brought forth some real gems: not just Professor Longhair's New Orleans Piano, but this 1949 session by singer-guitarist McTell. What Bob Dylan heard in McTell, the title subject of one of his most fabled songs, is both easy and hard to catch, but there's something eerie in the almost cheerful delivery of songs such as "Dying Crapshooter's Blues." A grand album that forms yet another facet of the label's gemlike catalog. --Rickey Wright