Hear Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen” in Remarkably Restored Audio, Taken from a Rare Test Pressing

Hear Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen” in Remarkably Restored Audio, Taken from a Rare Test Pressing Robert Johnson died at just 27 years old, some say as a consequence of selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads. But before his time came, he managed to record 29 songs, a scant body of work that nevertheless secured his artistic immortality as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. It’s unfortunate that his recordings, all of them made between 1936 and 1937 in less-than-ideal studio conditions even for the time, leave something to be desired in the audio quality department. But now, some 90 years later, sound restorer Nick Dellow has been uploading relatively crisp digitized “test pressings” of Johnson’s songs to YouTube: last month, for example, we featured one of “Cross Road Blues” here on Open Culture. In the video above, you’ll find a similarly higher-quality version of “Come On in My Kitchen,” a song acknowledged as an early demonstration of t

Added 27 May 2026