Tommy Johnson — Crystal Springs, Mississippi

Tommy Johnson, born around 1896 near Crystal Springs in Copiah County, Mississippi, was one of the most influential Delta blues musicians of the 1920s and a direct source for the legend of selling one's soul at the crossroads — he claimed to have done exactly that, meeting the devil at a crossroads at midnight to receive his musical ability. This story, which Robert Johnson later absorbed and popularised, appears to have originated with Tommy Johnson. His recordings from 1928 — 'Big Road Blues,' 'Canned Heat Blues,' and 'Cool Drink of Water Blues' — display a piercing falsetto and intricate guitar playing that was enormously influential on the musicians around him.

Johnson was a contemporary and rival of Charley Patton, and both were central figures in the Delta blues world of the 1920s. His 'Canned Heat Blues' gave the 1960s rock band Canned Heat their name. Despite his influence, Johnson was largely forgotten during his lifetime and died in poverty in Crystal Springs in 1956, having made only a handful of recordings. The folk and blues revival of the 1960s brought scholarly attention to his work, and he is now recognised as a foundational figure.

Crystal Springs has a Mississippi Blues Trail marker at the site of Johnson's burial in the Warm Springs Cemetery. The town is in Copiah County, south of Jackson. It is also the birthplace of opera singer Leontyne Price, giving Crystal Springs an improbable musical heritage straddling the Delta blues and classical traditions.