Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition

New Directions in Southern Studies

by Adam Gussow

The devil is the most charismatic and important figure in the blues tradition. He's not just the music's namesake ("the devil's music"), but a shadowy presence who haunts an imagined Mississippi crossroads where, it is claimed, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson traded away his soul in exchange for extraordinary prowess on the guitar. Yet, as scholar and musician Adam Gussow argues, there is much more to the story of the devil and the blues than these cliched understandings.

In this groundbreaking study, Gussow takes the full measure of the devil's presence. Working from original transcriptions of more than 125 recordings released during the past ninety years, Gussow explores the varied uses to which black southern blues people have put this trouble-sowing, love-wrecking, but also empowering figure. The book culminates with a bold reinterpretation of Johnson's music and a provocative investigation of the way in which the citizens of Clarksdale, Mississippi, managed to rebrand a commercial hub as "the crossroads" in 1999, claiming Johnson and the devil as their own.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

418 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2017

About the author

A professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, Gussow is also a blues harmonica player and teacher. He has published a number of books on the blues, including Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Blues Memoir (1998), Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition (2002), Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition (2017), and Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music (2020). His longtime musical partnership with Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee is the subject of an award-winning documentary, Satan & Adam (2018), which screened on Netflix for two years. These days Gussow performs with his trio, Sir Rod & The Blues Doctors, which features Magee’s nephew, singer Rod Patterson. Gussow's newest book is My Family and I: A Mississippi Memoir (2025)

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition is pretty much what it says in the title: an examination of the devil in the music and culture of the blues. Gussow discusses the branding of the blues as "devil music" by early Black evangelical churches, the way the blues used the devil to signify the evils of whites during the Jim Crow era, and the portrayal of devil as a romantic trickster figure. Gussow also gives a lot of attention to the myth of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads to gain musical prowess, addressing not only the myth itself, but also the way it is invoked in the problematic 1986 film Crossroads, and they way it is used to spur tourism by the town of Clarksdale Mississippi. This all makes for an interesting and illuminating read, and reminded me how much I like Delta blues. I especially loved the way that Gussow's myth-busting around Robert Johnson reveals a reality that is just as rich and magical as the crossroads story.

[Fi]

manager let me know that "sometimes people find things interesting that i think are really boring" when i told her what i was reading and i strongly suspect that a swift punch to the gut á la j. gordon whitehead would have been a gentler experience. so it goes.

that bit of trauma being aired publically, i enjoyed the book. thought it was thorough in the research and breadth of blues songs investigated, and in deconstructing the mythology surrounding robert johnson. it did, however, much like "the persistence of sentiment," force me to read descriptions including the word "phallic," and having never encountered this turn of phrase in a history book before i am wondering what it is about the word that so enchants music historians.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this book shortly after the pandemic shelter-in-place order (March 2020) and only just finished it last month. I suspect it took me so long because I didn't enjoy most of it. As a lover of the blues, I was enticed by the intriguing title and hoped I would find good stuff inside from another lover of the blues. I was disappointed.

The author tells us at the outset that his purpose is to offer "a series of explorations into the role played by the deveil figure within an evolving blues tradition.” Unfortunately, after all the surveying, I still don't know what the author, who has clearly spent much time thinking about the “sold his soul to the devil” myth, and according to his online bio is himself a blues musician, thinks about why the myth matters to the various communities that continue to be engaged with the blues genre and its cousins. I just didn’t get that take on the bigger picture that I hoped for.

Perhaps the audience was academic scholars and students, not your everyday blues aficionado like me. That would explain the author's inordinate fondness for inflicting one long sentence after another on the reader. Here’s an example: “Although a certain number of blues performers do indeed play up their putative proximity to the devil in a way that justifies the devil’s-music charge, a far greater number echo Lipscomb Owens and Waters, disputing the charge and, when seeing no other option, indicting those who indict them in a way that exposes a painful social breach.”
I couldn't tolerate reading more than few pages at a time. Consequently, it took me more than four years to finish the book. (I read a few others while making my way through this one.) Quite a few sections of the book consisted of the author detailing his agreements and arguments with what other writers have written about the “devil-blues tradition." Not having read those other accounts, I didn’t find those passages very interesting. Maybe these are desirable traits for a contemporary scholarly work. I’m not in the academic world, so I couldn’t appreciate the approach.

While this book lacks much affection or excitement about the blues, I did enjoy the excerpts from blues lyrics as well as the quotes from various blues musicians about their music and their lives.

At the end of the book, the author does briefly point to the continuum of the devil-blues tradition by noting an uptick in the number of devil songs recently released by contemporary blues artists. I just wish he’d not taken himself out of the picture so thoroughly, and instead had told us why he cares about the topic and what the devil-blues tradition means to him.

[Michael Lortz · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the release of the blockbuster movie Sinners, Beyond the Crossroads is a must read for anyone who wants to know the story beyond the story. Gussow thoroughly dissects the use of the term Devil in blues music from the earliest days before Robert Johnson, through Johnson's career, through the movie Crossroads, and into the 2000-era explosion of blues tourism in Clarksdale, MS. The book is split into several essays exploring the aspects of the devil and his association in the blues. Even though I thought I knew a lot about the subject, I learned a lot. Gussow is very, very thorough.
That said, Gussow writes like an academic. It almost too thorough. Beyond the Crossroads is not a quick read. The comparative theories and analysis create drag in the narrative. This is a book for the hardcore fans and academics, not for the casual blues fans. Even though the casual blues fans are the ones who probably need to read it.

[Sharon W]

Review by Sharon W. Watson
Book Club Placement Specialist

Beyond the Crossroads presents a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of how religion, culture, and identity continue to shape the modern South. The author’s analysis is well-researched, articulate, and grounded in both historical insight and contemporary relevance. It’s the kind of work that encourages reflection and conversation, qualities that make it particularly engaging for academic readers and book club discussions alike.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an academic examination of the Devil in the blues world, it is absolutely on point. As a look at the artists involved, not so much. If I'd been writing a paper this would be a great resource but for a reading experience capturing the joy and heartbreak of the music you'll need to look elsewhere. 3.5 stars

[Katrinka]

Really great scholarship and myth-busting. Very helpful.