Bluesman Robert Johnson's birthplace restored

JACKSON, Miss. --- The mystery surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson's life and death feeds the lingering fascination with his work.

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Copiah County, Miss., leaders hope to restore blues legend Robert Johnson's birthplace -- shown in this late-1950s photo -- for tourism. The artist made his mark in the Delta, about 100 miles away.

Back | Next

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Copiah County, Miss., leaders hope to restore blues legend Robert Johnson's birthplace -- shown in this late-1950s photo -- for tourism. The artist made his mark in the Delta, about 100 miles away.

Back | Next

Special

Copiah County, Miss., leaders hope to restore blues legend Robert Johnson's birthplace -- shown in this late-1950s photo -- for tourism. The artist made his mark in the Delta, about 100 miles away.

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There's the myth he sold his soul to the devil to create his haunting guitar intonations. There's the dispute over where he died after his alleged poisoning by a jealous man in 1938. Three different markers claim to be the site of his demise.

His birthplace, however, has been verified. The seminal bluesman came into the world in 1911 in a well-crafted home built by his stepfather in the Mississippi town of Hazlehurst.

Now, 71 years after his death, local officials want to restore the home in hopes of drawing Johnson fans and their tourism dollars to Copiah County, about 100 miles from the Delta region that most bluesmen called home.

Johnson's life and music have been the subject of multiple books. And producers are shopping a script in Hollywood about him penned by Jimmy White, the screenwriter for the Academy Award-winning film Ray .

"It's amazing that after all these years, people still talk about Robert Johnson on the level that they do," said the bluesman's grandson, Steven Johnson.

Johnson's influence can be heard in the works of numerous artists, from Muddy Waters to Eric Clapton, who covered 14 of the bluesman's songs on his 2004 album, Me and Mr. Johnson .

The house is an important piece of Johnson's legacy, said Grammy-winning pianist George Winston, who will headline a fundraiser for the restoration Monday at the Belhaven College Center for the Arts in Jackson.

"Everything with Robert is mysterious, but the more we can demystify, we can get down to the truth," Mr. Winston said. "He was an inspired musician. He took a quantum leap." The story goes that Johnson didn't play all that well at first, then left town for a while. When he returned, his music had undergone a transformation.

"He came back and everybody couldn't believe how well he played," Mr. Winston said.

That's likely what gave rise to the soul-selling rumor.