Depending on what day or decade you focus on, American music has given rise to some historically significant art forms, but none more important than The Blues. Born along the Mississippi Delta, widely known as the cradle of American music, The Blues emerged with the legend of Robert Johnson, a dirt-poor, African-American who would come to be known as the King of the Delta Blues decades after his untimely death at age 27.
Fat Man Blues is a fictional account of Hobo John, an Englishman who sets out on a journey down at The Crossroads, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The Crossroads is the exact place legend tells us Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to become a great musician.
As Hobo John acquaints himself with colloquialisms and surroundings in Clarksdale he continually, and surprisingly runs in The Fat Man, who is full of hubris and presents an ultimatum to Hobo John. The Faustian-style ultimatum is where the story builds momentum as Hobo John travels through the afterlife of the 1930s, the period of time when Robert Johnson’s legacy was born.
This book significantly highlights some of the most interesting moments in the birth of The Blues through imaginary characters and events. In doing so, author, Richard Wall has accomplished a highly significant point in creating a parallel between music and literature. Very few people recognize the similarities between the two in that music and prose of any style are bound by notation. Both are literate art forms.
While it’s highly unlikely the pioneers of Mississippi Delta Blues were totally , or even partially literate, the music speaks to a time when this was common along The Delta. The Fat Man speaks in a rhythmic dialect you hear in the rhythm of The Blues as easily as you hear how lonely, often hopeless, life could be.
Fat Man Blues is available at Amazon.com in two formats: paperback and Kindle.