Another sleepless night, so another mixtape. I have been wanting to do another blues mix for a while. This time though, things will be a little different. There is an argument for tracing much of what happened in popular music post WW2 back to the musical canon of Robert Johnson, the blues singer and guitarist who legend has it sold his soul to the devil in order to be able to play and sing like no other. The story continues that the devil got the last laugh as Johnson was murdered just before John Hammond could invite him to take part in a black music gala at Carnegie Hall in what turned out to be one of the music businesses first attempts to legitimise black music as a marketable product for the white folk. Although Johnson missed out on the mass stardom he was said to crave (Leadbelly got that gig) his attacking vocal and guitar style has influenced Chicago blues, rock and roll and R&B amongst others. To illustrate that influence, this mixtape is a compilation of covers of Johnson tunes by a hopefully diverse bunch of people. Interesting thing about Johnson songs is that they all seem capable of flowing into each other, making transition planning virtually redundant. What I hope will make this mixtape interesting is the differences and similarities in approach that these different artists have taken towards Johnson's material.