Biography of a phantom A Robert Johnson blues odyssey

Biography of a Phantom offers two stories. The first is an edited version of the late McCormick's previously unpublished narrative of his dogged search for people, places, and documents in order to construct a life of legendary blues singer/guitarist Robert Johnson (1911--38), whose songs include "Me and the Devil Blues" and "Hell Hound on My Trail." For the blues fan, McCormick's quest and what he found will be reason enough to read this book: much (but far from all) of what is now known about Johnson resulted from McCormick's research. In the second story, Troutman (Smithsonian Institution curator) contextualizes McCormick's quest within the framework of the blues revival that began after WW II, when white enthusiasts fueled a romantic fascination with the down-home blues of African Americans. Among the blues singers whose music was "discovered," none seemed more compelling at the time than the obscure Robert Johnson, about whom almost nothing was known. This is a disturbing tale about the troubled McCormick and the financial stakes, rivalries among researchers and relatives, and exploitation that for more than a half-century has surrounded the curation of Johnson's legacy. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --Jeff Todd Titon, emeritus, Brown University

A lot of legwork went into McCormick's account of his dogged search for the famed blues musician Robert Johnson, a meandering trek that took him all over the Mississippi Delta to places like Friars Point, Clarksdale, Helena, Martinsville, Commerce, Tunica, and Hazelhurst. Knocking on strangers' doors, striking up conversations in pool halls and diners, on plantations and street corners, McCormick, an obsessive white folklorist and obsessive, found folks who were willing to speak with him and succeeded in uncovering numerous facts about Johnson, whose life story had been overshadowed by fabulous tales and dark myths. McCormick's manuscript languished for 50 years, as recounted by editor Troutman. Suffering from mental illness, McCormick battled his demons, wrote and rewrote his life's work, fought and harassed others for credit and control of the Johnson legacy, and in the process alienated and victimized Johnson's legal heirs. Still, this volume is a significant contribution to scholarship on Black culture and the blues, told by a flawed man whose perseverance, patience, diligence, and methodical methods provide valuable insights into Robert Johnson and the milieu from which his music sprang.

The Smithsonian has posthumously released musicologist McCormick's (1930--2015) long-lost, much-anticipated book about blues icon Robert Johnson (1911--38). McCormick conducted this research over several decades, starting in the late 1960s, but never made his findings public. This page-turner, crime-thrillerlike odyssey leads readers through the American South for details about the blues guitarist. McCormick unearths some critical information about Johnson's mysterious life when he interviews guitarist Houston Stackhouse and finds Johnson's son Claud. McCormick experiences an epiphany when he gets on the rolling store bus (which is exactly what it sounds like) operated by Jack Hudson, who vividly remembers Robert Johnson by his stepfather's surname, Spencer. The author follows Hudson to Robinsonville, MS, where residents gave the author a treasure trove of details. He locates two of Johnson's stepsisters and ends his search in Greenville, MS, near where Johnson died at the age of 27. The circumstances around his death remained unreported for years, and there was no formal autopsy. Still, the book offers some theories about Johnson's alleged murder. A preface and afterward by Smithsonian curator Troutman provides needed context about McCormick and this book. VERDICT McCormick conveys a wild enthusiasm for his research and the music of Robert Johnson that readers will find contagious.--Dr. Dave Szatmary

A dogged researcher illuminates the mysteries and majesty of Robert Johnson. McCormick (1930-2015), an influential musicologist and folklorist, was known for the massive archive he had assembled on seminal blues artists as well as his refusal to share so much of it. He dubbed his archive "the Monster," and he struggled to tame it into book form, which makes this long-awaited publication a significant event in music scholarship. Edited by Troutman, a curator of American music at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, this volume contains an early draft of the Johnson manuscript that the author had revised for decades and ultimately abandoned before his death, in addition to Troutman's preface and afterword. It's a highly readable account of his discoveries. When he began, McCormick had little useful information about his subject beyond the towns mentioned in Johnson's recordings, which had been reissued to great acclaim. He proceeded through the Mississippi Delta area, knocking on doors and asking questions, a White outsider in predominantly Black communities. There were no photos of Johnson and almost no information on where he was born; nor was there agreement that his name was actually Robert Johnson. Still, McCormick pushed on, diligently recording his findings in text and photos. He describes how he shared the reissue of Johnson's recordings with those who had heard the music in person, and he records eyewitness testimony from the night of his murder, likely poisoned by a man who had warned Johnson away from a woman. This edited version of the manuscript could stand on its own as a revelation, but the contextual material adds to the intrigue. Troutman interrogates some of McCormick's methods while raising the larger issues of race and appropriation. "Rather than collaborate with living Black intellectuals to study Black music," writes Troutman, many White collectors and writers "preferred to pursue…what they considered the authentic Black experience, the real, through their own, self-guided, personal quests of blues discovery." A worthwhile investigation into a true legend of the blues. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.