Gunter Hotel — Robert Johnson Recording Sessions

In November 1936, Robert Johnson travelled to San Antonio, Texas, to record at a makeshift studio set up by Vocalion Records producer Don Law in a room at the Gunter Hotel. These sessions — held over three days — produced sixteen of Johnson's twenty-nine recorded sides, including 'Sweet Home Chicago', 'Terraplane Blues', 'Come On in My Kitchen', and 'Cross Road Blues'. Johnson reportedly recorded facing the wall, his back to the recording equipment, in order to get the natural room reverb he preferred. The sessions were remarkably productive and captured him at the height of his powers.

The Gunter Hotel was a prestigious downtown address — one of the finest hotels in San Antonio — and the choice of location for a remote recording session was typical of the era. Record companies sent field units to Southern cities to record local talent rather than bringing artists to New York or Chicago. A second set of Johnson recordings was made in Dallas in June 1937, but the San Antonio sessions at the Gunter produced the majority of his catalogue and the recordings now considered most essential.

The Gunter Hotel still stands and operates today. The room where the sessions took place is not specifically preserved or marked, but a Texas Historical Marker acknowledges the recording sessions. The Gunter is regarded as one of the most significant sites in the history of American music — the place where the recordings that define the Delta blues tradition, and that influenced virtually every subsequent rock and roll musician, were first committed to disc.