Why Texas Terraplanes™?
Robert Johnson was born May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. As a young child he lived with his mother in migrant labor camps, and then later went with her to Memphis. When he was around 7 his family moved to Robinsonville, Mississippi and that's where he finished growing up. As a teen he learned harmonica and later in the late 1920's he took up guitar. Eventually, life and music drew him back to Hazlehurst. Influenced by blues greats Son House and Charlie Patton and coached by bluesman Ike Zinnerman his talents and style developed.
In the 1930's he traveled and played at juke joints throughout Mississippi and Arkansas. His talent grew and he established a reputation and a following. That reputation, eventually through a chain of events landed him in a San Antonio, Texas recording studio, where he recorded "Terraplane Blues" and in that session and 2 sessions few months later and two more in Dallas recorded everything that is available that he did. "Terraplane" was the biggest seller.
Robert Johnson died August 16, 1938 at the age of 26 years old of pneumonia, a resultant complication of strychnine poisoning. The poison was in a half-pint of whisky given him by a man who's wife Johnson fancied.
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Robert Johnson 1911-1938
Texas artists such as Freddy King, Lightin' Hopkins, ZZ Hill, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Billy Gibbons, and many others owe much to Robert Johnson.
This debt is aknowledeged by including the word "Terraplane" in our name.