‘Lady’ sings the blues: Rory Block preaches the gospel of Robert Johnson
By Daniel Gewertz - Boston Herald
Thursday, August 10, 2006

The blues, legend has it, is the devil’s music. It was said that Robert Johnson, the greatest country bluesman, attained his seductive guitar skills by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta.
        Not many people still believe the myth. But the conflict between the Lord’s music and the blues lingers. After recording a new solo album of Robert Johnson songs, acclaimed blues interpreter Rory Block decided this old war needed to be addressed.
        ‘‘I’ve been saying for years that the blues and gospel are married to each other,” the New York City native said. ‘‘I believe that the blues is anointed spiritual music.”
        That belief led Block to a conversation with Robert Johnson’s grandson, Stephen Johnson, who is both a Mississippi minister and the vice president of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation. A plan for an unusual concert tour was born: real blues and a real Mississippi gospel choir.
        ‘‘Down at the Crossroads: Blues Meets Gospel” plays the Regent Theatre in Arlington on Monday. The evening will feature a solo set of Block performing the Johnson songbook after an introduction by Stephen Johnson; then the Straitway Ministries Choir of Utica, Miss., will perform gospel with Block and on its own.
        ‘‘I want this show to help remove the stigma blues has,” said Block, whose CD is entitled ‘‘The Lady and Mr. Johnson.”
        ‘‘I was 15 in 1974 when I first found out that my real granddad was Robert Johnson,” said Stephen Johnson, speaking by phone from a spot near his grandfather’s birthplace. ‘‘I felt proud and humbled.”
        Robert Johnson died, probably by poisoning, in 1938, after recording just 29 songs. His work became famous when released on LP in 1961 and he became a bigger star in 1990 when the songs were collected on a CD boxed set. In 1994, a U.S. postage stamp bore his likeness.
        ‘‘I’m a minister myself and don’t think of blues and gospel as enemies because I understand they both come from the soul,” Johnson’s grandson said. ‘‘Gospel just gives more hope. It has Jesus as a way out.”
        The choir’s leader, Bishop Frazier, agrees.
        ‘‘Church people used to point fingers at the blues for taking the music out of the church and into the juke joints,” Frazier said. ‘‘Now, of course, gangster rap is much worse. On tour we’re piggybacking on the blues so we can find some people that might find Christ.”
        Though Block has been singing Johnson songs since childhood, her latest CD marks a new turn in her idolatry. For starters, her voice sounds far harsher.
             ‘‘I didn’t sing the (songs on the CD),” she said, ‘‘the spirit of Robert Johnson came into the room. I never sang that way before and may never again. This was my best attempt to follow his recordings and arrangements note for note.  

‘‘I slaved, struggled, studied, listened, agonized so I could honor him. It is my obsession. I will never be Robert Johnson, but it is very good to try.”

Down at the Crossroads: Blues Meets Gospel, Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, Arlington. For tickets, $16.50-$26.50, call 781-646-4849.