Me and the Devil
A tangled web of truth and fiction surrounds blues legend Robert Johnson's alleged deal with the devil. Listen to how this quintessential Southern tall tale obscured Johnson's genuine genius.
The story of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads may be the South's quintessential tall tale, but the stories behind the myth reveal an even darker bargain.
In this gripping episode, Salvation South editor-in-chief Chuck Reece explores how an obsessed Texas music researcher named Mack McCormick spent decades chasing Johnson's ghost, ultimately resorting to forgery and deception in his desperate attempt to control the legendary bluesman's story.
We expose how the mythology around Johnson's supposed deal with Satan helped to obscure both his genuine musical genius and the exploitation of his legacy by those who claimed to champion it. Chuck talks to John Troutman, the Alabama-born curator who now manages McCormick's massive archive at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, music scholar Kimberly Mack, author of Fictional Blues, and Atlanta blues stalwart Tinsley Ellis.
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About the author
Chuck Reece is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Salvation South, the weekly web magazine you're reading right now. He was the founding editor of The Bitter Southerner. He grew up in the north Georgia mountains in a little town called Ellijay.
- Chuck Reecehttps://www.salvationsouth.com/author/chuck_reece/
- Chuck Reecehttps://www.salvationsouth.com/author/chuck_reece/
- Chuck Reecehttps://www.salvationsouth.com/author/chuck_reece/
- Chuck Reecehttps://www.salvationsouth.com/author/chuck_reece/
