Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson

This Second Edition of the award-winning Crossroads by Tom Graves is the author-approved new manuscript that contains updated information and new photographs related to blues legend Robert Johnson. Crossroads won the Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Literature in 2010 from the prestigious Blues Foundation and is considered the definitive word on its enigmatic subject. The result of careful and meticulous research, this stylishly-written biography of infamous blues musician Robert Johnson reveals the real story behind the mythical talent that made him a musical legend. According to some, Robert Johnson learned guitar by trading his soul away to the Devil at a crossroads in rural Mississippi. When he died at age 27 of a mysterious poisoning, many superstitious fans came to believe that the Devil had returned to take his due. This diligent study of Johnson's life debunks these myths while emphasizing the effect that Robert Johnson, said to be the greatest blues musician who ever lived, has had on modern musicians such as Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones and fans of the blues. Tom Graves, a master of what Ernest Hemingway called "the true sentence" and the telling detail, pieces together the fragments of the jagged, elusive puzzle that is Robert Johnson.