Along with Charlie Patton, Tommy Johnson can be considered one of the
originators of Delta blues. Like one of Mississippi's itinerant balladeers,
Tommy Johnson was a true showman, attracting onlookers with his antics as much
as his music. He built a legend for himself, even claiming to have received his
gifts from an encounter with the devil at the crossroads at midnight! In the
20s, Tommy Johnson was in Jackson, the capital of the state of Mississippi,
livening up the taverns in the company of the Mississippi Sheiks and the McCoy
brothers. Such was his reputation that in 1928, t...