Last Fair Deal: The Robert Johnson Podcast

Ann Charters, better known as Jack Kerouac's biographer and witness-historian of the Beats, also saw firsthand the making of The Country Blues, published by her late husband Samuel Charters in 1959. Though other writers had touched on blues history, none had the impact of Charters and The Country Blues, which launched the so-called 'blues revival' (a term I hate, but is what is). Ann comfortably weaves Kerouac, Blind Willie Johnson, and Vladimir Horowitz into the discussion, while sharing unique firsthand perspective of an iconic work of history and people like Sleepy John Estes who helped make it happen. You'll be pleasantly surprised to learn who encouraged Sam to write The Country Blues.

Elijah Wald and Preston Lauterbach interview Jim O'Neal, founding editor of Living Blues magazine and the research director of the Mississippi Blues Trail. Jim tells of crossing paths with Robert Johnson's memory during his long career as a journalist in Chicago and Mississippi. He shares audio of a 1980 interview with a musician named James Banister who volunteered some fascinating information touching on the subject of Robert Johnson's unrecorded repertoire while offering the strangest rumor ever recorded about the cause of Johnson's death. Jim also shares audio of the great piano player Memphis Slim who weighs in on Johnson's taste in women in a 1975 interview, not long after Slim's return to the U.S. from Paris.

Elijah Wald and Preston Lauterbach compare and contrast B.B. King and Robert Johnson and discuss the surprising link between the two very different artists in light of a new biography of King. They revisit the great Honeyboy Edwards and his enthralling memoir The World Don't Owe Me Nothing and debate the history of Robert Johnson's murder. Later, they interview Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton, touching on a wide variety of subjects from L.A. juke joints to blackface minstrelsy, proving how painfully difficult the latter subject is to talk about.

Elijah Wald and Preston Lauterbach discuss the most irritating myth associated with Robert Johnson and conclude that the deal with the devil at the crossroads is not it. They do, however, shed light on the importance of the crossroads to Robert Johnson, and it's not what you think. The featured guest is Larry Cohn, producer of Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings who tells a tale of big record company sloth and indifference to music of historical and artistic greatness that makes dealing with the devil seem preferable by comparison. For a deeper dive into the crossroads, check out the research of Harry Middleton Hyatt, who interviewed hoodoo conjurors in the South during Robert Johnson's life and found a surprising number of the artist's lyrical inspirations. So, stuff some hot food powder into that nation sack and let's go: https://thechitlincircuit.substack.com/p/hoodoo-at-the-crossroads.

Elijah Wald and Preston Lauterbach interview Peter Guralnick, author of Searching for Robert Johnson. Peter discusses the impact of Robert Johnson on artists Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, whom he knew, as well as his relationship with the enigmatic blues researcher Mack McCormick. You can jump to the interview at around the 9:30 mark. Elijah and Preston discuss Robert Johnson's guitar, Charles Dickens's prose, and the strange career of White researchers of Black music.

In our debut episode, Elijah and Preston debate Robert Johnson's greatness and interview the last living person who knew Johnson well, revealing what became of a holy grail of American music: Robert Johnson's guitar. Mrs. Annye C. Anderson, author of the memoir Brother Robert, about growing up with Johnson in Memphis, makes a few revelations about Johnson's music and influences that aren't available in her book, as well as sharing charming anecdotes about the great artist as a normal human. Roll up a Bull Durham, pour a glass of non-poisonous spirits, and enjoy.