• BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON: The Soul of a Man (SERIE MESTRES DO BLUES 41)

    Blind Willie Johnson was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas (before the discovery of his death certificate, Temple, Texas had been suggested as his birthplace). When he was five, he told his father he wanted to be a preacher, and then made himself a cigar box guitar. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried soon after her death.[1]
    It is thought that Johnson was married twice, first to a woman with the same first name, Willie B Harris, and later to a young singer named Angeline, who was the sister of blues guitarist L.C. Robinson. No marriage certificates have yet been discovered. As Angeline Johnson often sang and performed with him, the first person to attempt to research his biography, Samuel Charters, made the mistake of assuming it was Angeline who had sung on several of Johnson's records. However, later research showed that it was Johnson's first wife.
    Johnson was not born blind, and, although it is not known how he lost his sight, Angeline Johnson provided this account to Samuel Charters: She said when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man.
    The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye and threw it, not at Willie's father, but into the face of young Willie.[2]
    Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of Beaumont, Texas to anyone who would listen. A city directory shows that in 1944, a Rev W J Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forest Street, Beaumont, Texas.[citation needed] In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed. He lived like this until he contracted pneumonia two weeks later, and died. (The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis as a contributing factor.) In a later interview his wife said she tried to take him to a hospital but they refused to admit him because he was black. Although there is some dispute as to where his grave site is, members of the Beaumont community have committed to finding the site and preserving it.

    Track Listing
    1. Praise God I'm Satisfied
    2. Dark Was the NIght Cold Was the Ground
    3. I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge
    4. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
    5. Bye and Bye I'm Goin to See the King
    6. Sweeter as The Years Go By
    7. You'll Need Somebody on Your Bond
    8. When the War Was On
    9. Take Your Sand
    10. Trouble Will Soon Be Over
    11. The Soul of a Man
    12. The Rain Don't Fall On Me
    13. Go With me To that Land
    14. John the Revelator

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