Blind Willie Johnson: I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole (1927)

 |   |  1 min read

Blind Willie Johnson: I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole (1927)

Last year as part of a short series on blues artists we profiled the remarkable Blind Willie Johnson whose music is out there in the endless cosmos on board Voyager 1.

Johnson possessed an astonishing voice, full of the pains of sin, the hope for redemption and an earthiness which seemed to come from the soil beneath his feet.

The piece -- one of only a couple of dozen songs he recorded -- is one of his best known, as much for his slide guitar playing as how he conveys the sentiment.

It is also just one of  25 similarly spiritual blues songs on the just released Rough Guide to Gospel Blues (through Southbound) which includes equally fine and powerful material by Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White, Rev Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Charlie Patton, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith and others.

510IVRipONLLotta people going by the appelation "Blind . . ."

There are songs which don't often get an airing here (Mother McCollum's Jesus is My Air O-Pane and Henry Thomas' Jonah in the Wilderness) alongside more familiar pieces (Patton's Jesus is a Dying Bed Maker, Skip James' Be Ready When He Comes).

There is a heartfelt truth in these songs and sentiments (even if some of the singers admitted to be backslidin' sinners) and, as the liner notes say, there is a very thin line separating the Lord's song and the Devil's music. 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Willie Nelson: Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other (2006)

Willie Nelson: Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other (2006)

When this Willie Nelson song started to get a bit of attention around the time of the movie Brokeback Mountain, many people -- myself included -- assumed it had been prompted by that film. But... > Read more

Al Stewart: Clarence Frogman Henry, Audrey Hepburn and The Year of the Cat (1980)

Al Stewart: Clarence Frogman Henry, Audrey Hepburn and The Year of the Cat (1980)

He may be a bit of a bore in interviews (see here), but Al Stewart did tell a great shaggy-dog story in concert -- and of course wrote Year of the Cat among many other fine songs. So here you... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . HP LOVECRAFT: High, here and gone.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . HP LOVECRAFT: High, here and gone.

Now, I'm neither ashamed nor proud of this, but some while back – decades ago – I enjoyed perpetrating pranks and hoaxes, especially postal pranks. Of the latter I would, for... > Read more

MUSIC, AND THE PRICE MUSICIANS PAY (2016): The New Zealand Music Foundation Wellbeing Service.

MUSIC, AND THE PRICE MUSICIANS PAY (2016): The New Zealand Music Foundation Wellbeing Service.

So, until he published his recent autobiography, who knew Bruce Springsteen had been suffering massive anxiety issues for over a decade? The man who seems to stride the world confidently has... > Read more