Music
The Complete Recordings
This remastered two-disc collection brings an unprecedented level of clarity, intimacy and immediacy to immortal Thirties blues recordings that laid a blueprint for everyone from Eric Clapton to Jack White. No new songs have emerged. But the producers’ painstaking care makes bone-chilling cuts like “Cross Road Blues” and “Love in Vain” sound entirely fresh, as if Johnson were in your living room — or inside your head. The set, which commemorates the guitarist’s 100th birthday, transports us deeper into the mythic and all-too-real world his music evokes.