Customer Reviews

Robert Johnson Songbook

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Here is an amazing album with an amazing history. It begins as a tale of two musicians in the best of times and the worst of times. The story starts with Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, a fabled musician who lived a haunted life. According to the most romantic of myths, he sold his soul at a country crossroads at midnight in order to play guitar and sing the blues. He died young at the hands of a jealous husband who poisoned Johnson's whiskey, leaving behind but a handful of songs. The legend of Robert Johnson has grown stronger---and certainly more fanciful---with time, but there's no denying the astounding music that he made, music that has influenced everyone from Muddy Waters to Eric Clapton. And Peter Green. Green grew up in England as Peter Greenbaum, a good Jewish boy who dreamed of playing the blues. He may not have sold his soul, but he was obsessed with music and practiced until he could play like the devil. The young guitar prodigy made his name in the early, blues incarnation of Fleetwood Mac before moving on to replace Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Green's command of the blues won him renown equal in the minds of some fans to Mike Bloomfield and Duane Allman. Peter Green could bend the right note at the right time. But Green's pursuit of guitar star fame came to a troublesome end in the early 1970s. One story states that he was spiked with bad LSD---a story uncannily akin to Johnson's---and went off the deep end; other tales blame mental imbalance or stress for his downfall. Either way, Green left the music world and became a recluse; some accounts liken him to a character out of a Charles Dickens novel, an unkempt wanderer with scarily long fingernails. But it's here that the stories of Robert Johnson and Peter Green diverge. Green was staying with his friend Nigel Watson in the summer of 1995, when Watson began playing a Robert Johnson song on his old guitar. The song struck Green like lightning---or enlightenment. Watson's wife trimmed Green's fingernails for him, and he picked up the guitar again. The result is this new CD. Beyond the story of Peter Green's music redemption through the music of Robert Johnson, one of the things that makes this CD so good is that Green doesn't try to ape the originals. Instead, he plays the songs his way. Sure, there's Johnson telltale slide licks and copped vocal inflections at times, but in the end, this is a Peter Green record. The album includes covers of many Johnson greats, featuring Green and Watson on slide and fretted guitar. Most of the songs are acoustic with electric guitar added to some; bass, piano, drums, and backing vocals enhance several cuts. In the end, this CD not only has a history but will certainly become a historic album.

I bought this CD back when it was issued but hadn't listened to it much until recently when Peter Green's fellow British guitar wizard Eric Clapton issued his own tribute to Robert Johnson called Me and Mr. Johnson. Although the two CDs are very different in both approach and sound, I like them both. The one I would pick as the "best" would depend on my mood on any given day. But if its "authenticity" you seek, then Green's Robert Johnson Songbook comes closest to the Delta Blues sound.

Since I have not actually heard most of Johnson's own work, I won't inject myself into the "what would Johnson do?" speculations. I have a feeling that he would be pleased and amused that so many white boys see him as a blues god and want to cover his music. However, I have heard all these songs before covered by a variety of artists from across the rock and blues spectrum, so I can comment on their relative merits.
There is a lot to like here. Green and his sidekick Nigel Watson put their hearts into this recording and serve up some very tasty Delta Blues, London style. I like the whole CD, but my favorite renditions here are of Phonograph Blues, a gospel-flavored Last Fair Deal Gone Down, a slow, Stones-like Love in Vain Blues, the mournful Stones In My Passway, the macho I Believe I'll Dust My Broom, and the swinging Sweet Home Chicago.
The CD comes with an informative booklet that compares and contrasts the lives of Robert Johnson and Peter Green. It also offers some intimate observations on how the idea for this tribute was born. If you like the blues in general and aren't a stickler for note-for-note authenticity, then I recommend The Robert Johnson Songbook highly.

And for the record, some reviewers mentioned erroneously that Peter Green had been away from recording since his Fleetwood Mac days. Not so. He made a number of albums, some of them quite good, during the late 70s and the 80s. If you were unaware of that, its because none of his albums were given proper promotion.
Some of that period's music is available here on this site, mostly in compilation form.

To be quite honest, I originally bought this album b/c my curiousity got the best of me. As a fan of Peter Green in his Mayall & Mac days, & being quite aware of his situation, I knew I wasn't going to be getting this disc to hear that tone out of his Les Paul that KNOCKED me out.

And I was right. But I also enjoyed this album considerably. No tone, no Les Paul, but this is a great disc if you really enjoy the acoustic blues like I do. It might be me, but this is some of the CLOSEST covers of Robert Johnson one will likely hear...anywhere. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I was blown away by the actual "feel" they achieved to the original recordings of Po' Robert in the 30's, which is a challenge in its own right.

I really don't know what Green played on these sessions, & from what I hear, he enjoys playing the harp & some guitar while Nigel Watson handled much of the soloing. But again, that isn't a bad thing. His voice has aged exceptionally well through the years (especially for the material they played).... & it was just great to hear that Peter Green was back playing & making music again. But make no mistake: the music is excellent on this album. Very ironic that Peter Green makes his way back, playing Robert Johnson songs...

This effort by Peter Green and the Splinter Group is excellent. Having listened to the Blues by the original artists for years, it is eveident that Green loves and knows well the material as well as what lies beyond the surface of it. He is restrained and mature in his playing and his vocals are deep and rich. Green realy makes this great music fresh and yet true to tradition. Good support by the Splinter Group. A great album for either Peter Green fans or for those unfamilar with him but great fans of the blues. May God bless Peter with good healtha and keep him making good music for years to come.

This is not a guitar hero album. You wont find here the reason why he was compared to Clapton in the 60's. After listening to a couple of tracks, you get the feeling that Peter Green doesnt worries about that at all. You hear a man having a good time, listening to the healing words of Robert Johnson. Deep words from a deep voice. The overall feeling of the album is great; it's loose but it's not improvised. Of course I wish Peter would have played a little bit more, but after all, thats one of the main reasons I like his playing so much; he never wastes a word.

On "The Robert Johnson Songbook", and its 13-track companion volume "Hot Foot Powder", Peter Green goes through all of Robert Johnson's twenty-nine recorded songs. Or rather through twenty-seven of them, according to the track list here on Amazon, which doesn't feature "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" or "Terraplane Blues" (they are both on my CD, however, but that may be a European thing).

The arrangements are mostly acoustic, featuring guitars and dobros, piano and the occational harp, and while former Fleetwood Mac-guitarist Green's vocals aren't excactly powerful, he sings with a lot of soul and an impeccable sense of rhythm, sounding in fact very much like Eric Clapton.
Bad Company's Paul Rodgers guests on a couple of tracks, and vocal group Street Angels 98 lend a distinct gospel-like flavour to "Last Fair Deal Gone Down".

This isn't aggressive electric blues with lots of fiery lead guitar, rather it's mellow and rather faithful to Johnson's original readings. And virtually every song is excellent, from the classic guitar/piano duet on "When You Got A Good Friend" and the harp-driven "Stop Breakin' Down Blues", to the Paul Rodgers-sung "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and the delightful low-key rendition of "Sweet Home Chicago".
And Robert Johnson's version of "Walking Blues", which incorporates the rhythm, the phrasing and even the main slide guitar riff from Son House's "Death Letter", sounds even more than usual like "Death Letter". Not that I'm complaining, I love that song!

There isn't a whole lot to complain about here, actually. This is Robert Johnson's songs, after all, and while Peter Green has updated the arrangements to a certain degree, he doesn't really alter any of the songs enough to offend any Johnson lovers. A little bit more variation might be nice, but "The Robert Johnson Songbook" is a perfectly good record as it is.
And it's successor, "Hot Food Powder", is even better, so don't forget to pick up both of them.

I admit I was disappointed when this CD came out. Since Peter Green had returned to performing and recording in 1996, I was hoping for new songs from him. A whole album of Robert Johnson covers? Why?

After listening to this, however, I began to appreciate it more and more. Nigel Watson and Peter Green manage to be respectful without being overly reverent, well aware that they're updating Johnson's classic songs for contemporary audiences. (It's worth noting that the only Peter Green compositions to appear on any Splinter Group CD are re-arrangements of ... old Peter Green songs.) Peter's voice is getting pretty creaky, but on this record it's warm and husky, just hoarse enough to give you the feeling of someone who's lived the blues. The piano and rhythm work are excellent, as are Nigel Watson's singing. And a special word for the Street Angels backup singers, whose performance on some tracks gives them a gospel feel that's entirely appropriate to the material.

There's no point in comparing this to Robert Johnson's originals. However, you can compare it to Eric Clapton's new release, by contrast a rather dry, lifeless exercise that goes in one ear and out the other. If you're a Clapton fan, you can string me up and call for the executioner, but first... listen to this CD. It's a must for any blues fan.

(And don't forget to buy "Hot Foot Powder", the follow-up album with more delicious blues!)

An excellent return from a welcome old friend. Riveting & gut wrenchingly beautiful, simple, sraightforward blues with a feeling. A guitarist and bluesman who certainly still belongs in the same class as his bretheren Kim Simmonds and Eric Claptin. I enjoy this very much and listen to it frequently with growing appreciation.

Like a little Blues in your life? Well, You can't beat this.

Did you ever buy a record that only had one good song on it? (Manfred Mann's "Quinn The Esquimo" comes to mind.) Well, There's 16 songs on this album - and 14 of them will knock your socks off!

I got this CD in the mail about three days ago. I've listened to it about a hundred times. This is one of the best.

As you may know, this album is the second from Peter since the beginning of his comeback in 1996. This quaint, quiet collection of Robert Johnson covers is a lesson in something not heard today often: TASTE.