(b. Robert Leroy Johnson, 8 May 1911, Hazlehurst, MS, d. 16 August 1938, Greenwood, MS)

For a subject upon which it is dangerous to generalize, it hardly strains credulity to suggest that  Johnson was the fulcrum upon which post-war Chicago blues turned…His lifestyle, that of an itinerant with a ready facility to impress his female audience… One such dalliance brought about his end a year after his last session, poisoned by a jealous husband while performing in a jook joint at Three Forks, outside Greenwood, Mississippi.