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"Blind" Willie Johnson (c. 1902-1947), was one of the greatest exponents of slide or bottleneck guitar.
His mother died when he was young and his father remarried. His stepmother did not like him and his blindness resulted from her throwing lye in his face when he was 7 years old.
Like many poor people with physical disabilities at the time, Blind Willie Johnson earned his living from music. He would often sing on street corners and only recorded in the studio a few times.
Despite his lack of recordings his music has been tremendously influential and his songs have been covered by several popular artists, including Led Zeppelin who covered 'Nobody's Fault But Mine', and Eric Clapton, who covered 'Mother's Children Have A Hard Time'.
His music is distinguishable by the powerful bass strumming and his false bass voice. Most of his songs were religious in nature, and so can be considered gospel blues.
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