The guitars of Robert Johnson. 

5:33 listen to that slide tonality...

If I see Robert Johnson in the title, I watch. It's that simple.

Jeff Beck said it best. Robert Johnson was my guru. Without him, I would be working at the post office.

Hoooooly shit, when that dude started playing I almost crap my pants, it sounds so similar!

Best version of 32-20 Blues I have ever heard, besides the original.

The Gunter Hotel where Johnson recorded at is 10min alway from where I live and is a beautiful hotel downtown.

Johnson and Hopkins acoustic tone is where it's at. Love that you mentioned the importance of the room!

Just to kinda add and i mean this with all due respect to musicians. Since the early Delta blues all the way to the mid late 80's a lot of musicians not all that were involved in some way of their own generation were are all little more gritty and really tough. From led Belly killing a man all the way to Social distortion and a lot of in between musicians have seen and done things that just aren't done anymore. Real struggle and fear for your safety makes a different person. I think a big part of Robert Johnson allure is his life, which was hardly charmed by any means. You can write lyrics about a hard life all you want and play drop A# tuning on 9 strings all day, but to really be authentic is a hard thing to come by now a days. A lot of modern bands grew up with supportive parents very good music /singing lessons and yeah they can play better than Hendrix or SRV but there is a lack of Authentic personality. It may be the beer talking but Tragedy creates beauty. P.s. if you ever visit San Antonio The pints are on me

You guys are great excellent rendition of 3220 in stones in my pathway 👌🏼🎶🎸🎸🎸🎶.... You've definitely done your homework 👍🏼

Keep up the Robert Johnson stuff guys!

Look at Robert Johnson's hands @2:33. This guy was born to play guitar.

Absolutely amazing, bravo. I wish I was there live for these recordings. I just love the slide sound and the blues

Robert Johnson is one of my guitar heroes! The delta is were my family is from too i started playing guitar a year ago after hearing him play, there is just something about the blues that I can feel at times when i listen to it.

Great voice and playing! I’ve been a Robert Johnson fan and blues fan and player, since my early teens. Wonderful to hear this degree of skill and passion. Thank you!

WOW MAN!!! I am well aware what you just played and the level of Difficulty to play like that and sing at the same time, NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE!!!! YOU ARE SO VERY GOOD!!!! You need to be on stage touring the World my friend!!! I am 50 now and I have not heard many in my days who can play as you. VERY GOOD!!! (My Strat got stolen---Three people broke into my house, stabbed me, left me to die and took the 1962 Fender Stratocaster my Late Mother had given me. I was 22 then, and never wanted to see another Guitar ever again, Unless of course it was mine, Never had such luck though) Now I of course wish I'd never given up on it, as I was getting pretty good. Next time 'round I guess. :) So Impressed with your Playing!!! Right On!!!

Not even all the way through yet. Just wow.

Damned impressive! Very much liked the playing, and I'm always interested in any discussion of the evolution and techniques of popular music in the fist half of the 20th century.

Excellent Excellent video. Your comments about Eric Clapton are spot on as he has stated himself. Years ago he did a documentary about recording his Robert Johnson album and in it he admitted there were several songs that he spent considerable time practicing because of the difficulty of playing them like RJ, AND the added difficulty of singing at the same time. Super job👍 (watched under another name, comment under this name😊)

I used to sit on Robert Junior Lockwood porch Johnny Shines will come over this is back in Cleveland for early Seventies...👍🏼🎶🎸🎶

God I want one of those old Kalamazoo 30s guitars! I know where I can get the perfect one right now, but it badly needs a neck reset, plus a couple other minor tweaks; and I don't have a trusted luthier to do the job... Plus the guy wants 1500 for the damn guitar as is... So, well over $2K when all is said and done. :/

Robert Johnson was a bluesman for aure, but Django Reinhardt was waaaay ahead of his time as well.

I was wondering if you guys were gonna play into a corner. Thanks for not letting me down.

I watch everything I can on Robert Johnson. I have watched this piece alone several timnes. By the way what is the neck width on a KG 14?

This one was fun love that you are going this back in history much respect as always great stuff man,🤘👌

Thank you for recording this! Great video!!

wish you'd turn around so I could see what you're doing. Excellent interpretation!!!

That gibson L1 could be the one if u look at the pic of him holding it, it has striking similarities of wear around the pickguard area. Unfortunately Johnson never owned the Gibson L1, it was given to him to hold for the sake of the photo. Johnson would not have been able to afford that guitar.

The research & attention to detail you put into your videos never ceases to amaze me. Glad I found your channel, you deserve more subscribers (though 12,000 is quite impressive)

As someone who's lived here in Hazlehurst MS their entire life I can assure you that he created the hype, no devil, no deal. The REAL crossroads is at the cemetery in Beauregard MS. Ike Zimmerman taught him guitar. I work with Ike's granddaughter shes in her 60s. They used parlor style guitars, as they were more easily traveled with. They stayed here in the off season then when the train came thru everyone loaded up and went north to the delta to work in the fields and pick and pack the various harvests. Y'all wanna know his secret? Come down here and work in the 90% humidity in 100°f and 85° f at night with no air con. Its oppressive then there were social factors at that time that were most vicious and appalling. Thats were y'all fail to grasp it 100% Thanks for the upload

Awesome, just subbed

That was some blues playing for a welshman lol fantastic bro

Brilliant change up Owen. Good to see you with some company...please keep these guitar history lessons coming, they're very entertaining and inspiring for new riffage

Loved your Hex-mas videos because I'm a metal fan at heart, but this sounds amazing! I have a Robert Johnson CD somewhere, but can't say I've ever given it enough attention.

When I first started playing guitar I was given a tape…a cassette tape of early Bob Dylan & Robert Johnson. That along with Led Zeppelin live DVDs, Guns N Roses & funny enough Garth Brooks. What a wonderful world to grow up in with music. Lest I forget we owned a bar in the south. So, Lynard Skynard, .38 Special & local musicians was a given. 🎸 🤘🏻 At 16:42 ish that reminds me of Leadbelly “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”

A couple years ago l listened to a recording of a radio interview with RJ's mysic tutor Ike Zimmerman's daughter where she spoke about the time RJ spent with her family learning from her father. She recounted how they would practice for many hours. She also said her father taught many others including several women, and was way better than RJ and also composed several of the songs RJ recorded.

Wow, hearing Johnson's material played on these original axes gives me chills. This was damn great

I'm genuinely impressed gentlemen

Superb! One of the best guitar videos I've seen on RU-vid.

I COULDNT UNDERSTAND THE BIG DEAL ABOUT RJ ,,,WHEN I STARTING PLAYING THE BLUES........NOW, IM HEARING THE GREATNESS AND IM OBSESSED WITH HIS HAUNTING VOICE, MUSIC, AND STORY...LOVE IT!......I THINK WHEN U REALIZE THAT HES THE ONLY ONE PLAYING IN HIS SONGS, AND DARE TO COPY HIS MUSIC, AND TIMING HE MADE UP HIS OWN RYTHM THAT NOONE HAS EVER REPRODUCED CORRECTLY, PLUS HIS LYRICS ARE LIKE LITTLE MOVIES, I GET LOST IN HIS STORIES...HE WAS SCARY/GREAT NO PUN INTENTED!

You guys did great. Didn't expect to see this outta you but I've obsessed with Robert Johnson recently so this is remarkably timed.

Wow. You guys nailed the vibe. Well done.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge

Are the strings also from the 1920s, lol. Seriously, what strings/gauges you have on both guitars? The tone was near perfect!

Holy shit.

Absolutely awesome! It's cool to not only see these amazing instruments, but also how you (as closely as possible) mimicked the recording atmosphere to try and capture that original sound and tone. You're right, at Circle of Tone you don't mess around. Thanks for sharing such a fantastic video and for the education behind it all as well.

All roads lead back to The Delta.

The Kalamazoo without question.

Cool! Love the guitars and playing. Subscribed. I suspect no deal was made, I think maybe Robert was like me in a way. Negative criticism (even from myself) is for some people the best catalyst to spur on hard work and in his case he went and got some lessons. He wanted to be good, so he pursued it fully with dedication. Like so many others. I speculate, but it seems reasonable doesn't it?

What a curve ball Owen, definitely didn’t see this coming. Which is why I’m subscribed in the first place. Outstanding work brother.

Great video and wonderful playing. That KG14 sounds fantastic in Jonathan's hands. It's been a while since I watched the Johnny Shines interview, but IIRC he mentions that Robert Johnson liked the Kalamazoos and also the (Oscar Schmidt) Stellas. The latter aren't as commonly associated with Johnson as they are with Charlie Patton etc, but I expect he's more likely to have played one than the costlier Gibson. I think that the guitar of an itinerant bluesman in the 1930s would have been very prone to damage (Johnson is known to have liked his women and his whisky and wasn't one to back down from a fight). Replacement guitars would need to be quickly sourced from what was readily available. The Stellas (and other brands made by the Oscar Schmidt Company) were widely distributed, sturdily built and relatively inexpensive.

Beautiful, incredible work, thank you both!!

Thank you. Just, thank you.

great job on this video!!!!

Brilliant

Brilliant musicianship

Your buddy Johnathan was good. You know, that Gibson you played a bit sounds like a piano when you let the bass register ring at the end of passages.

wow just wow, just wooooow... that guitar you held owen, the things i would do to be able to record a few takes with it on my music... AWESOME VIDEO!

Again Tommy johnson was the one who sold his soul Robert johnson talks about tommy johnson

3:50 why can’t we see you play?????

This was a GREAT video! Thank you for doing this and taking on the challenge! \m/

Same tone as Robert Johnson, your playing and the guitar is legit, damn that slide

Good old corner loading! The guy was sooooooo ahead of his time amd he knew it too!!🎸🎵💜🎶

People like Robert Johnson couldn't afford a gibson back then. More likely a harmony acoustic guitar.

I’m gonna say it was the Kalamazoo, if that was the first one he played. Two totally different sounds.

Cool guitars!

Holy shit! You got the actual period correct guitars he used ! I have the t shirt where Robert is holding the Gibson

Really interesting stuff as always, don't give it up

Truth is it was more than two yrs between a novsist and a masterful player. Durring that time him and Ike spent days and nites playing an learning guitar.

Incredibly good. This really was a treat. Thank you!!!

Fun for all.

goddamn didn't expect this one, good fuckin job

Fantastic, didn't expect you to tackle this, suggests you could dig into anything. I'd like to humbly request a video on Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs, specific similarities with/differences from Hendrix's tone.

Amazing fucking video Owen. Pleasantly surprised by this! Robert Johnson is definitely the original heavy guitar music, been listening to him since I was a teenager. I'm sure you've seen the movie Crossroads with Ralph Machio (Karate Kid!) but for those who haven't, it is one of the best guitar movies out there. All about Robert Johnson and the mythical Willie Brown selling their souls to the devil for skill. Keep it the Hex-Mass surprises coming!

Ike Zimmerman Is the Henry Sloan of the Johnson story

For sum reason, I thought Robert Johnson played a seven string?

Back in the mid 80's I had a healthy interest in delta blues. I had a very tough time finding the info I wanted. I would mention Robert Johnson and get the deer in the headlights look. Come to find out there were a hell of a lot more people in England that knew more than anyone in the US amongst white people. I knew I could go to source and find out what I wanted. I don't like traveling alone and no one wanted to go with me. Now I'm broke down and useless.

Oh my, what a treat of a video. The sound of the guitar facing the corner put the hairs up on my arm. TODAY, Robert Johnson's 117th Birthday. What a treat, a treat, a treat, that Stones in my Passway, amazing.

I've heard it said that Johnson favored Gibson arch-tops when he could get one

This guy has that 3 finger roll down. Impressed

Wonderful work.thank you.i love this music,so much.😁💡👍🎸

Look to see he right of Robert in the picture with the Gibson.. it looks like a face formed in the curtain.. if you edit the lighting , and zoom in.. you can see an eye ... could it be legba? Spooky...

Radiolab has a really interesting episode on the Robert Johnson soul-selling myth: www.radiolab.org/story/199705-crossroads/

Those Guitars sound really good, The E F G Riff you played sounded good, I was playing a long with it..

To think the Devil tuned Robert Johnson's guitar and the deal was done. Closest I ever came to that was shaking Ozzy Osbourne's hand. I could sing much better after that day....

what a shame i picked up the guitar at 21 within a short time people couldnt believe how fast i caught on maybe robrt johnson leaves meets the person ike who unlocks the piece he needs and he could be just that gifted

Awesome video

Amazing guitars and some amazing playing. I don't believe I've heard a better rendition of this style.

Awesome video, why do you have your back to the camera? You should be proud!! I have the book, The Search for R.J.!! So very talented, you are! !

Hey man I told my Producer why he should subscribe to your channel. You got a damn good ear, and because of what you you do on your channel for historical musical sound, and how you recreate it.

I'm a lefty guitarist in my late 40's .out of all I seen , heard and know your the MAN I've heard play exactly like R. Johnson. Once I've read Brian Jones say to K. Richards on hearing Johnson record ings said cool guitarist but who is that other guitarist?? Little that some players of today know that both sounding is coming from ONE person's !!! Guitar!! I scrambled to hear it and YUP! Major stuff here. No wonder he played facing the corner It's mysteriously CREEPY!!

You’re not on a cross road at midnight, so you’re safe.

Love your vids

Nice one gentlemen.

Mucca mush let those blue wings fly get to Merthyr Tydfil rising see the skirt loose round the bins they swallow bag of chips n a kebab Merthyr Swansea road if if got sum crustal rock do any ting do any ting for a kebab no serotypes they have style! !!!!!! Class @ BOUNCING BABIES ALL NITE THEY CAN GET SERVED SO YOU HAVE TO TREAT EM LOL

Wish I could have seen the techniques, but it sounded great!

Open g??

You are absolutely right if it had not been for Robert Johnson Muddy Waters and other gentleman like them we probably would not have rock and roll today. It is interesting to see a video on how they may have recorded these things considering at the time recording music was really still in its infancy. As for the whole story of Robert Johnson going to the crossroads and selling his soul you're right and what I think you were trying to say that he went to study with someone and came back really good. This surely would have been in the time when people progressed so quickly like that that it would have had it been of let's say an evil nature.But they say that about heavy metal and rock and roll for that matter today.Thank you for making this video it's always interesting to hear about the old school Blues.

Thanks for this. I am a Metalhead, but as a guy whose been around a while, I know that without this music we have no Chuck Berry>Beatles>Zeppelin>Sabbath>Priest>Slayer>Modern Heavy styles. INFO is POWER!!!!

Damn, i would sell my soul for that geetar!

Non believers will hate, it's all good but there are a few albums I can listen to and there is something very, very enchanting about the performance... There's a spiritual energy there and I don't think it's coming entirely from the player. Robert Johnson's recordings (all of them) have this mark. Jimi Hendrix's music did as well. Randy Rhodes guitar playing, there are others.... Then again it's probably all in my head.