Wednesday, Nov. 11 | 7:30 pm | Home of Janet Hall & Walter Smith (offsite) -
MEETING OPEN TO ALL
Please join us for an engaging discussion of Biography of a Phantom: A Robert Johnson Blues Odessey, by Robert “Mack” McCormick, edited by John W Troutman. The meeting will be held at Janet Hall and Walter Smith’s home in Chevy Chase.
Biography of a Phantom delves into the life of Robert Johnson, a legendary Delta Blues singer and guitarist who grew up in the rigidly segregated Jim Crow South in the early 20th century. He catapulted into musical fame when a few songs that Johnson recorded in the 1930’s were finally released nationally in the 1960’s, thirty years after his mysterious death. His biographer Mack McCormick began a relentless search for Robert Johnson’s life by walking through small towns and visiting libraries courts and homes in the Delta between 1970-74. He drove and walked though 700 counties (not a typo) in what John Troutman, the editor and Smithsonian Institute musical curator, characterizes as Johnson’s “extraordinary reach and tenacity as a researcher and writer.”
The book is a splendid mix of relentless detective work, a murder mystery, musical history mixed with legend with penetrating insights into the life of Blacks in the darkest part of the Jim Crow south. It is at heart a tale of a musical genius who has only received his due long after his death. In short, it has something for ever reader! I hope you can join us for the discussion of this extraordinary tale.
Please note: The meeting will be in in person-only; NO Zoom.
- Earle O’Donnell
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