Blind Willie Johnson was an American gospel-blues singer, guitarist, and evangelist whose landmark recordings—completed between 1927 and 1930—demonstrate a powerful combination of chest-voice singing, masterful slide guitar work, and original composition. Across just thirty recorded songs, he created a body of work that has influenced generations of musicians in blues, gospel, folk, and rock.

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Although Johnson’s records sold well, he lived most of his life in poverty, performing and preaching on the streets of Beaumont, Texas. Interest in his music revived in the 1960s, spurred by his inclusion in Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and the advocacy of blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis. Today, Johnson is recognized as one of the most important slide-guitar practitioners in American history. Among his best-known recordings are “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed,” “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” and “John the Revelator.”

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Johnson was not born blind. Although details differ among sources, most biographers agree with the account given by his widow, Angeline Johnson: at age seven, Willie was permanently blinded when his stepmother threw a caustic solution of lye water at him during an argument with his father. Despite this traumatic beginning, he went on to develop a unique musical voice that would outlast his era.

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He died in 1945 from complications of malarial fever while living in the burned remains of his ruined home. His death certificate lists Blanchette Cemetery in Beaumont as his burial place, but the exact location of his grave remains unknown.

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Johnson’s haunting hymn, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” achieved extraordinary recognition when Carl Sagan selected it for inclusion on the Golden Record aboard NASA’s Voyager I. Alongside Mozart and other cultural masterpieces, Johnson’s slide-guitar performance now travels nearly a million miles per day beyond our solar system, carried by the most distant spacecraft ever launched from Earth. Should intelligent life encounter the record, they will also encounter the brilliance and soul of Blind Willie Johnson.