Blind Lemon Jefferson
by Don Erickson
Blind Lemon Jefferson was certainly the most popular and influential
Country Blues artist during the early days of recorded music. He was an
innovative virtuoso on guitar who was one of the very first artists to
employ single-string arpeggios and lead-type lines as accompaniment to
his vocal. He would alternate these intricate melodic structures with
thumping bass string runs. Sometimes he would simply follow his vocal
lines with freely improvised, loosely rhythmic guitar figures.
He was born blind in 1897 in Couchman, Texas. One of seven children, he
moved to the Deep Ellum section of Dallas in 1917. A young T-Bone Walker
would lead Jefferson around the streets of Dallas, playing on street
corners for spare change. His reputation grew, and although blind,
managed to travel to many other towns and cities. There are accounts of
him performing in Oklahoma, the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, Atlanta and
the Carolinas.
It wasn't until 1925 that a Dallas record store owner heard him and
recommended him to Paramount Records. The following year he was invited
to Chicago to start a recording career. The tremendous success of his
records, along with the records of fellow Paramount artist Blind Blake,
was what led companies to start recording country blues artists on a
widespread basis.
Jefferson also recorded some sides for the Okeh label in 1927, including
"Matchbox Blues" and "That Black Snake Moan." He
wrote many original songs that became classics of the genre. The song
"See That My Grave is Kept Clean" has been recorded by
countless artists, becoming one of the most interpreted pieces of
American Folklore. Some of the important artists who have performed this
song are Lightnin' Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane.
Blind Lemon recorded more than eighty songs between 1926 and 1929 in
what was to be a very short career. During the winter of 1929-30 he came
to Chicago to record again and attended a friend's house party, leaving
late into the night. Hampered by densely falling snow, he got lost in
the streets of the big city and froze to death there. It's possible he
may have suffered a heart attack.
In 1967, a foundation collected enough money to locate his grave and
erect a memorial to the man who influenced not only Texan guitarists
such as Hopkins and Walker, but also B.B. King and Piedmont stylists
Rev. Blind Gary Davis and Blind Willie McTell. Blind Lemon Jefferson was
inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980.
The double album King of the Country Blues (Yazoo) contains an
excellent selection of his work with a hig sound quality for tunes
recorded over seventy years ago.
Next month we continue the "Legends of the Blues" series with
an overview of the Piedmont style of Blues pioneered by Blind Blake and
other greats.
Reprinted with permission from the October 1996 issue of the Blues Crier
