e of the first Mississippi Delta bluesmen). Son’s playing largely resembled that of Lemon’s, "The high pitch delivery, the brilliant counter melodies between phrases." (Lomax, 13) And thus, Robert Johnson unknowingly inherited the powerful influence of a long line of famous Delta bluesmen. Son House recalls how, "We’d all play for the Saturday Night Balls and there’d be this little boy standing around. That was Robert Johnson. He was just a little boy then. He blew a harmonica and he was pretty good with that but he wanted to play guitar." (Guralnick, 15) Son House recalls how Robert would sit in the corner and listen, sing, and dance along to the rhythm of the guitars. "And then we’d get a break and want to rest some. Robert would watch and see which way we’d gone, and he would pick one of them up. And such another racket you never heard!". (Guralnick, 15) Son would scold Robert for playing the guitar and causing such racket yet. In latter years, House laughs at the thought, admitting flat out that Johnson had become a far more accomplished musician than he had ever dreamed.Robert’s wife died at the age of sixteen during childbirth, and it is unknown exactly how this effected Robert. It is suspected that he underwent some type of emotional breakdown and as a result, Robert underwent a creative outburst. He temporarily moved back in with his mother and step but moved out again and traveled deep into the Delta. Robert struggled to "Piece together into some kind of coherency, the evil contradictions of life". (Finn, 211) And so he turned to music. Previously captured by the seemingly magical music of blues, Johnson turned to the world of magic for an answer. He traveled deep into the bayous for nearly two years, supposedly to seek the assistance of a root doctor. An uninhabited, muddy jungle is a description fit to describe the bayous of Mississippi. A dark, forbidding place, the ...
