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Music fans around the world have marked Aug. 16 as a day of mourning. No doubt most think back to 1977 when Elvis Presley sang his last tune. But a few will have 1938 on their minds. That’s when a different American music pioneer died just outside Greenwood. Robert Leroy Johnson was a bluesman who had little commercial success during his lifetime, but his recordings still affect music that’s made today.

“We have his death certificate,” said Greg Johnson (no relation), curator of the Blues Archive at the University of Mississippi’s J.D. Williams Library. “It’s a certified copy. The original is on file in Leflore County.”

By itself, Robert Johnson’s certificate makes official the tragic death of a 27-year-old man. But as part of the Blues Archive, it helps document Mississippi’s native music that grew out of slave spirituals and work songs and became the foundation of rock ‘n’ roll.

“It’s the history and culture of the state of Mississippi and the surrounding states. We save history before it is lost. We preserve it and make it available,” said Jennifer Ford, head of Ole Miss’ Department of Archives and Special Collections. “Most important is to make it accessible, to make it available to our patrons.”

Those materials are available to anybody who wants to sample them.

Read more at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Today marks the 102nd anniversary of Robert Johnson’s birth. In recognition of his birthday, we invite you to watch this animated video for “Cross Road Blues” and look at Robert’s official Timeline and Family Tree!

In a forgotten corner of downtown, on a street rarely traveled, stands one of the city’s rarest treasures.

“People come from all over the world to Dallas, and they’re going one of two places that I know of,” said Pat Bywaters, a member of the 508 Park Project. “Most of them are probably going to the JFK memorial. And if anybody else is going anywhere, they’re coming here.”

The building at 508 Park Avenue is a music Mecca for Blues aficionados. On the third floor of this now-abandoned building, during the height of the Great Depression, a wandering musician from Mississippi named Robert Johnson recorded 13 songs in a makeshift studio.

Read more at KHOU.com.

A 1936 blues song wins a 2013 music video award! Congratulations to Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” and Legacy Recordings for winning the 2013 Pixie Award! Watch the video:

Fifteen-year-old Josh Achiron of Atlanta, Georgia is the 2012 winner of the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation New Generation Award.

Josh began playing guitar after visiting Graceland at the age of six. One of Josh’s first guitars was an acoustic baby Martin, which he used while performing at school functions while he was still in elementary school.

Josh’s interest in music can be traced back to his parents – his mother was a modern jazz dancer, and his father was a percussionist and music major at Emory University.

Josh began listening to jazz and blues at a young age, and has been heavily influenced by Eric Clapton, Hiram Bullock and Pat Martino. In 2012, he was a finalist in the Guitar Center’s King of the Blues, the Lee Ritenour/Yamaha Six String Competition for blues guitar and finished 5th in the world at the prestigious International Guitar Foundation of America Classical Guitar Youth Competition.

Josh plans to continue studying both classical and jazz/blues guitar, and to continue writing songs and performing. He hopes to one day attend a University Music Conservatory program and to pursue a career in music.

The Robert Johnson Blues Foundation is honored to recognize Josh Achiron as 2012’s New Generation Award winner.