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Long before rock 'n' roll, stadium tours or electric guitars, a traveling blues musician stopped in San Antonio and recorded songs that would influence generations of artists.
His name was Robert Johnson, and San Antonio is reclaiming the history of this mysterious music legend and virtuoso.
Elizabeth Fauerso is working with the Gunter Hotel, which has decided to stake its ground in music history. That history was created by Robert Johnson, a guest who showed up in room 414 and changed music forever.
Many of us may know the blues standard "Cross Roads Blues." The lyrics go, “I went down to the Crossroads … got down on my knees. …”
“Cross Road Blues” was written by Robert Johnson. An intense loneliness and musicality sit at the core of the recording.
That raw, soulful sound inspired generations of guitarists, including Eric Clapton who recorded his own version of the song in the late 1960s.
Oddly, Clapton’s love of the song has a San Antonio link. Fauerso says that link is a strong one. “A really seminal moment in American musical history happened in the room that we're sitting in right now, room 414,” she said.
Former San Antonio Express-News columnist and bass guitarist Jim Beal said Johnson's talent was immense. “Robert Johnson just had a great way with timing and with rhythm and with lyrics, and he was an excellent guitarist,” Beal said.
Beal notes that we have little to judge Johnson's talent by, because he didn’t have a long career of recordings, and he didn't have enough time to be prolific.
“He only did a handful of sessions, one at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio in 1936,” he said.
And the room where Johnson recorded was that particular room — 414.
“There was a label called A.R.C., the American Recording Company,” Fauerso said. “And what they were doing at that time in the ’30s, there were these hyper-regional Americana sounds emerging outside the footprint of major cities.”
In 1936, the recorded music industry was still young and hungry for new talent. “We know the was here for two days, (and) had two sessions,” she said.
Both of his recordings were produced by Don Law. Law was essentially a talent scout traveling with a mobile recording unit, which he set up inside room 414. Robert Johnson was an itinerant musician, playing juke joints and sometimes street corners.
“Coming through San Antonio, San Antonio was on the path of Black musicians because of the venues on the East Side,” Fauerso said.
Johnson and Law spent two days recording at the Gunter.
“And then he did a session up in Dallas. And that was it. It was only — what? — 41 songs total? And out of that came some of the most seminal blues, some of the most popular blues songs still being played today,” Beal said.
Unfortunately, Johnson, became one of the earliest members of the so-called “27 Club” — an informal list of influential musicians who died at age 27. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse are also members of this poignant grouping.
Beal said Johnson was a gifted musician. “Robert Johnson was a rather enigmatic artist. Great songwriter and a great guitar player whose legend has done nothing but grow throughout the years,” Beal said.
The Gunter Hotel decided that history was important enough to preserve in a major way. Amongst other changes, the hotel has now built a recording studio.
“Having the studio here is going to be a really interesting thing that will provoke, hopefully, lots of different experiments and discourse and collaboration,” Fauerso said.
The goal is not simply to display Robert Johnson’s legacy behind glass, but to keep the music alive.
“Steven Johnson, his grandson — we want to invite him here, and we want him to record in the studio,” she said. “We want him to invite his community of musicians and artists to participate.”
The Gunter Hotel will host a full-day celebration on Friday, May 8.
Performing at the Friday celebration at the Gunter in the Crystal Ballroom are Nicky Diamonds, the Peterson brothers and Sue Foley. The event also coincides with Johnson’s birthday.
“We're going to celebrate Johnson's birthday in the lobby, and our once Poet Laureate Vocab [Andrea Vocab Sanderson] has composed a piece that she's going to perform.” Fauerso said. “And we'll have birthday cake as a way of just inviting everybody in to experience it, versus just saying 'today is Robert Johnson's birthday.'”
Fauerso said she hopes the Gunter once again will stand out for its music.
“It's really fun to imagine San Antonio reclaiming this hotel and this place as somewhere to hear music, to hang out, to connect, like it was for so long,” she said.
The mystery surrounding Robert Johnson continues even in death. He has three gravesites in three different places, and no one knows for certain which one actually contains his body.
