Tommy Johnson

From the Jackson area south of the Delta proper, Tommy Johnson brought a leaping falsetto and a deep, swinging guitar to his blues. His 1928 recordings, among them 'Big Road Blues' and 'Cool Drink of Water Blues,' became models other musicians learned note for note across Mississippi. A heavy drinker whose own crossroads myth circulated long before Robert Johnson's, he influenced a wide circle without ever recording again after the early thirties.