Searching for the Blues

Robert Johnson did not sell his soul to the devil. But how did he crack the Blues code...? While modern music historians have now almost completely stripped the Blues of its myths, award-winning Swiss singer-songwriter, slide guitarist and book author Richard Koechli gives him back the soul in a philosophical way. With a mystical story that deeply explores the question of what exactly might be behind the legendary 'mojo' of the great Blues masters. Koechli embarks on a trip to the temples of the African-American musical soul, gets involved in strange thought adventures, meets all kinds of stars of Blues and Rock history - and in the end is haunted in a dream by the most famous of all Blues figures, by Robert Johnson (1911-1938). Johnson 'tells' him what really happened in Mississippi back then, how he got the Blues secret - and whether the devil really played a role ... A stirring story for all Blues lovers; full of light-footed poetry, spiritual depth and music-historical precision. You can feel in every line that the author is not a theorist, but a Blues artist down to the core.

Swiss musician and book author Richard Koechli is a great connoisseur of American roots music and its history. His reference books and music novels, published by AMA and tredition, are renowned standard works (German Music Edition Award 2011); as a guitarist and singer-songwriter, he has been awarded the Swiss Blues Award, the Swiss Film Music Prize, and the Prix Plus (Swiss Arts and Culture Prize), among others. More information: www.richardkoechli.ch/en