Various Artists - Covered: Robert Johnson, Volume 2 (1983-2020)

Yesterday, I posted Volume 1 of the "Covered" series's focus on blues legend Robert Johnson. I think the two volumes I've made need to be appreciated together to make a whole, so here's Volume 2.

As I said in my write-up to Volume 1, Johnson only recorded 29 songs during his very short musical career in the 1930s. Since his musical influence has been so enormous and the number of songs he did is so small, I've found versions of every single one of those 29 songs. More of the famous songs were included in Volume 1. For some of the songs here, like "Photograph Blues" and "Drunken Hearted Man," I had to struggle to find any good covers at all. That said, all of Johnson's songs are worthy, and I did ultimately find good covers for all of them.

As with Volume 1, I tried hard to find covers from a variety of artists. That's why, for instance, I have a version of "Stop Break Down" here by the Jeff Healey Band instead of the more well known one by the Rolling Stones. The version of "Hellhound on My Trail" by Larkin Poe is actually unreleased. They did a version on their 2020 album "Kindred Spirits" that's frustatingly short, at only 43 seconds long! But happily, they did a two-minute long version for their "Tip O' the Hat" video series, so I used that version.

This album is about 50 minutes long, and Volume 1 has a similar length.

01 Honeymoon Blues (John Hammond)
02 Me and the Devil Blues (Cowboy Junkies)
03 They're Red Hot (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
04 Little Queen of Spades (John Mooney)
05 32-20 Blues (Bob Dylan)
06 Kind Hearted Woman Blues (Keb Mo)
07 Stop Breaking Down (Jeff Healey Band)
08 Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Beck)
09 Milkcow's Calf Blues (Robert Palmer)
10 Stones in My Passway (John Mellencamp)
11 Phonograph Blues (Pyeng Threadgill)
12 If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day (Rory Block)
13 Dead Shrimp Blues (Dan Patlansky)
14 Drunken Hearted Man (Devil Makes Three)
15 Hellhound on My Trail (Larkin Poe)

https://www105.zippyshare.com/v/XQQU5OOt/file.html 

As I explained with my Volume 1 write-up, there are only three confirmed photos of Robert Johnson, and all of them are in black and white. Furthermore, all of them are in fairly bad shape, considering they're family heirlooms dating to the 1930s. I colorized this one, and made lots of little tweaks in order to make it presentable. It still has some issues, but hopefully it gives you a rough idea of what he looked like, in color.