Smokestack Lightnin' Hall of Fame

I have been a fan of the Blues since I was 10 years old. In the 50 or so years that have passed since John R, and The Hoss Man of WLAC first in instructed me in the wonders of the Electric Blues, I have come to know literally thousands of Blues musicians through their music. Muddy Waters and the Howlin’ Wolf are my personal favorites but when someone asked me recently who was the most important Blues performer of all times, I had to respond Robert Johnson. It’s true that Muddy took the music electric, and B.B. has certainly had the longest and most prolific career, but no one in the 20th Century has had a greater impact on not only the Blues, but modern music as a whole, than Robert Johnson. Despite his relatively brief career, and his relatively small body of work, the influence of Johnson on the modern forms of music we know as the Blues, R&B, Soul, and Rock & Roll are immeasurable. It was not Johnson’s influence over the average listener, but his influence over other musicians that defined his legacy. No other artist in the 20th Century had such a profound effect on all the music that came after than he did , and so I nominate Robert Johnson as the first inductee into the Smokestack Lightnin’ Blues Hall Of Fame.