[CHAPTER 12] — FINAL THOUGHTS

The music of Willie Johnson

The music of Blind Willie Johnson has impacted many people over the past hundred years. I am one of those people. His skill on the guitar was masterful, and even to this day, he remains one of the most famous slide guitarists the world has known. As much as the guitar playing captures my attention, my heart is captured much more by his story, the way he sings and the lyrical content within his songs.

As someone in the Christian faith and as a person wired for observation and deep thought, I believe Johnson’s songs are a minefield. No, not the kind of minefield that is difficult to traverse and terribly hazardous. What I mean is that they are a field that, if you dig around in, you may find some nuggets. Does anything good come from asking hard questions about plagues of illness? What comfort can we find from classical claims about the nature of God? How much can we claim to know about realities that go beyond our scientific endeavours? Is there a way for us to hold together the various beliefs that allow us to get through each day and offer us hope for a better tomorrow?

This journey through the songs of Willie Johnson was a challenge for me to write. How much attention should I place on the music or lyrics? How far should I allow much attention to drift from what I thought the songs were really about? How personal should I get about what the songs were doing with my emotions, and how much of my own life should factor into what I was writing? As a project devoted to deep thinking, it was ironic that I did not give much thought to any of these questions; instead, I took a freeform approach. I will leave it to the reader to judge whether this was wise and whether it all hangs together.

I set out to offer open-hearted reflections on the art that Willie Johnson left with us. This required me to get out of my comfort zone by opening up about myself and my experiences in life. The nature of Johnson’s songs was such that hard topics and hard questions had to be faced. These were not always easy things to speak of, nor do I imagine that they were enjoyable things to read about. Nevertheless, my hope is that this opening up has been something of a blessing to you. The offer remains open to sit down and talk about these songs, the music and the questions about life they invite; hopefully, we will get to do that one day, so you can tell me what you think.