Rating: 
Summary: Who was Robert Johnson?
Review: This is an intelligent, thoughtful, informative book, with a unifying objective historical view. If you want the musical answer to the musical question I posed above, it's here. Wald puts Johnson in context in the history of the blues, and there's a great companion CD, Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson, with 23 rare 78 tracks, so you can hear many of the hundreds of blues pioneers mentioned in the book. My favorite suggestion in this book: What effect did Alan Lomax's 1941 Mississippi interviews with Delta blues players regarding Robert Johnson have on their assessment of "their one-time peer"? This thought made me put the book down and think about history and history writing, for about 2 days. Very heady. I'll be looking for anything Mr. Wald writes.
Rating:
Summary: Strips the myth, leaves the man
Review: This is, by far, the best book of its Genre.
Robert Johnson's legend has grown over the past 60 years to that of some sort of blues messiah. Wald's very complete, extraordinarily well researched, and very well written discussion cuts through much of the legend and reminds us that Johnson was "just" a man. He did not spring from some cotton field and invent the blues. He did not singlehandedly lay the foundation for Rock and Roll. In his day, he was a rather obscure performer who had an uncanny knack to play any kind of blues style.
HOW he came to be considered the King of the Delta Blues is just as informative, to me at least, as his biography itself. It is a facinating look at American culture and mores.
My favorite part of the book is the song-by-song discussion Wald goes into. His insights are fascinating. It's worth the price of the book to read along as the music is being played in the background.
Even with the legend stripped away, the strength of Johnson's body of work still earns him a spot with the greats of music history.
Rating: 
Summary: Long haul to the Crossroads
Review: When I saw this book, and the cover picture I was so excited. I couldnt wait to read it. I anticipated some insite into Robert Johnson, and the blues generally. Never judge a book by its beautiful cover.... I read the book, cover to cover. I have been an avid blues fan since 1967, still am, and listen to the stuff and play it on my guitar almost every day. I was familiar with 95% of the performers mentioned in the book. I owned the companion CD and have much of the material on other Lps and CD's. This is an area of interest, passion and comfort for me. I would really like to meet Mr. Wald and play guitar with him-he is clearly knowledgable and stimulated by the genre. But in a nutshell, this is a LONG READ, which I eventually found TEDIOUS. All of the five star reviews are accurate regarding its content and meaning, and I don't take issue with Mr. Wald's premise. The information on Robert Johnson, which interested me enough to buy this book was not comprehensive-the liner notes from The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson are more informative. This has ALL THE THRILL OF A TEXTBOOK, with a bit LESS USEFULL information. But, thanks to Mr. Wald for his efforts on a subject not much delved into since the folk anthropology of the late sixties and early seventies.
Rating:
Summary: Long haul to the Crossroads
Review: When I saw this book, and the cover picture I was so excited. I couldnt wait to read it. I anticipated some insite into Robert Johnson, and the blues generally. Never judge a book by its beautiful cover.... I read the book, cover to cover. I have been an avid blues fan since 1967, still am, and listen to the stuff and play it on my guitar almost every day. I was familiar with 95% of the performers mentioned in the book. I owned the companion CD and have much of the material on other Lps and CD's. This is an area of interest, passion and comfort for me. I would really like to meet Mr. Wald and play guitar with him-he is clearly knowledgable and stimulated by the genre. But in a nutshell, this is a LONG READ, which I eventually found TEDIOUS. All of the five star reviews are accurate regarding its content and meaning, and I don't take issue with Mr. Wald's premise. The information on Robert Johnson, which interested me enough to buy this book was not comprehensive-the liner notes from The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson are more informative. This has ALL THE THRILL OF A TEXTBOOK, with a bit LESS USEFULL information. But, thanks to Mr. Wald for his efforts on a subject not much delved into since the folk anthropology of the late sixties and early seventies.
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