Robert Johnson Featured On NPR Weekend Edition

Robert Johnson was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition today, and audio from their broadcast is available below. In an accompanying article, NPR wrote:

Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Johnson. Although he recorded just 29 songs, the bluesman had a huge influence on guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Johnson is one of the most studied of all country blues musicians, and he’s been the subject of many books, films and essays. But the mythology surrounding his life just won’t go away.

If you know anything about Johnson, chances are it’s the story that he sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for his musical talent. That legend reached a mainstream audience with the 1986 movie Crossroads, starring Joe Seneca and Ralph Macchio.

But according to folklorist Barry Lee Pearson, it didn’t happen.

Read more at NPR.org.