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Blind Lemon Jefferson
Paramount Records publicity photo, c. 1926 — photographer unrecorded/unknown (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
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Blind Lemon Jefferson

This artist is no longer with us.
Born: September 1893 (census-based; his own 1917 draft card lists October 1894), near Coutchman, Freestone County, Texas · Died: December 19, 1929, Chicago, Illinois — officially "acute myocarditis"; exact circumstances disputed (heart attack, robbery, or poisoning, per differing accounts)• United States
Texas BluesCountry Blues
Instruments
Acoustic guitar, Voice
Labels
Paramount
from
East Texas
Born
September 1893 (census-based; his own 1917 draft card lists October 1894), near Coutchman, Freestone County, Texas
There's a version of the blues origin story where the whole commercial genre begins with one blind street singer from Texas selling more 78s than anyone thought a Black country-blues artist ever could — and that story is basically true, and his name was Lemon Henry Jefferson (Kilde: Wikipedia). He was born blind, the youngest of seven or eight children to sharecroppers Alex and Clarissa Jefferson, near the small community of Coutchman in Freestone County, Texas — most census records point to September 1893, though his own 1917 draft card lists October 1894, so even his birth year depends on which government form you trust (Kilde: Wikipedia; U.S. Census 1900/1910). He started playing guitar as a young teenager and worked the streets, picnics and barbershops of East Texas, eventually gravitating to Deep Ellum, the Black entertainment district of Dallas. It was there, from around 1912, that he struck up a partnership with a younger guitarist named Huddie Ledbetter — Lead Belly — the two of them busking together for years before either had a record to their name (Kilde: Wikipedia). Around 1917, a teenage T-Bone Walker started leading the blind Jefferson around Dallas as a guide, and Jefferson taught him the rudiments of blues guitar in return (Kilde: Wikipedia). In late 1925 or early 1926, Jefferson was brought to Chicago by a Dallas record-store connection and put in front of Paramount Records — an unusual arrangement, since most rural blues artists of the era were recorded in the field rather than summoned to a studio (Kilde: Wikipedia). His first sides were gospel numbers released under the pseudonym "Deacon L. J. Bates," but it was the secular blues that followed — "Long Lonesome Blues" chief among them — that turned him into Paramount's best-selling male blues artist almost overnight (Kilde: Wikipedia). Paramount's Mayo Williams reportedly gave Jefferson a Ford car worth over $700 — a striking gesture that says as much about how much money Jefferson was making the label as anything else (Kilde: Wikipedia). Over the next three years he cut close to 100 sides, of which 43 were released, mostly in Chicago and, briefly, at Okeh Records in Atlanta in March 1927, where he recorded both "Black Snake Moan" and "Matchbox Blues" in a single sitting. His signature song, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," was recorded twice — October 1927 and again in February 1928, after the first version sold well enough to justify a second try (Kilde: Wikipedia). He died in Chicago on December 19, 1929, officially of "acute myocarditis," though the exact circumstances were never pinned down — accounts range from a heart attack after getting disoriented in a snowstorm to a robbery gone wrong to poisoning, and nobody alive today can say for certain which, if any, is true (Kilde: Wikipedia; Frank X. Tolbert, 1983). He was buried in what was then called Wortham Negro Cemetery in Freestone County, Texas, and the grave went unmarked for decades — Texas placed a historical marker there in 1967, a proper granite headstone wasn't erected until 1997, and the cemetery itself wasn't formally renamed Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery until 2007 (Kilde: Wikipedia; Texas Historical Commission). Almost nobody who came after him in Texas blues gets there without going through him first.

Musical Influence

Jefferson's fingerprints are all over the next two generations of the blues. Lead Belly, who busked beside him in Dallas as a young man, carried Jefferson's repertoire and phrasing into his own songster tradition. T-Bone Walker, who led him by the hand as a boy, took the guitar lessons Jefferson gave him in payment and built the foundations of the electric blues guitar style on top of them. Lightnin' Hopkins, another Texan, grew up idolizing Jefferson's records and modeled his own loose, conversational guitar-and-voice interplay directly on them. And B.B. King repeatedly named Jefferson — alongside Lonnie Johnson and T-Bone Walker — as one of the guitarists whose records he studied obsessively as a young man in Mississippi (Kilde: Wikipedia). It's a straight line from a blind street singer in Deep Ellum to the entire postwar Texas and Chicago blues-guitar tradition.

Influences

Texas country-blues tradition

Family and personal life

Parents
Alex & Clarissa Jefferson

Sharecroppers; Lemon was the youngest of seven or eight children.

Formative experiences

  • •1912: Began busking with Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) in Deep Ellum, Dallas. (Kilde: Wikipedia)
  • •c. 1917: Taught a teenage T-Bone Walker basic blues guitar in exchange for being led around Dallas. (Kilde: Wikipedia)
  • •Late 1925/early 1926: Brought to Chicago and signed to Paramount Records. (Kilde: Wikipedia)
  • •March 1927: Recorded "Black Snake Moan" and "Matchbox Blues" at Okeh Records, Atlanta, in a single session. (Kilde: Wikipedia)
  • •December 19, 1929: Died in Chicago under disputed circumstances. (Kilde: Wikipedia)

Instruments & Equipment

Guitar

Steel-string acoustic guitar (make unconfirmed)
1912–1929

No specific make is reliably documented for Jefferson's own working guitar — historians note this remains unconfirmed.

Vocals

Vocals

High, keening vocal delivery paired with intricate, irregular-metered guitar lines that often departed from strict song structure.

Stories & Anecdotes

"Paramount's Mayo Williams reportedly gave Jefferson a Ford automobile worth over $700 in recognition of his record sales — an extraordinary gift for a Black recording artist in the 1920s. (Kilde: Wikipedia)"
"His grave went unmarked for decades; a Texas historical marker was placed in 1967, but a proper headstone — inscribed with a line from "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" — wasn't erected until 1997. (Kilde: Wikipedia; Texas Historical Commission)"

Collaborators

Lead Belly

Busking partner in Deep Ellum, Dallas, from around 1912, years before either had a recording contract.

T-Bone Walker

Led Jefferson around Dallas as a teenage guide from c. 1917 and received blues guitar lessons in return.

Watch & Listen

Featured

Blind Lemon Jefferson: See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

His most famous composition, recorded twice (1927 and 1928).

The Worst Program On The Internet ... The Blues

Blind Lemon Jefferson – Matchbox Blues (1927)

Blind Lemon Jefferson – Matchbox Blues (1927)

Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson (1927)

Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson (1927)

Watch & Listen

Henter videoer fra YouTube…

Press & quotes

"Jefferson's high-pitched voice and intricate, syncopated guitar accompaniment departed from the traditional 12-bar blues form, expanded to fit his lyrical narratives."
Wikipedia (editorial synthesis of multiple musicological sources) · Reference summary — Blind Lemon Jefferson

Discography

YearTitleProducerStudioLabelChartSalesMusiciansYouTubeNotes
1926First Paramount sessions, Marsh Laboratories, ChicagoParamount Records (Mayo Williams)—Paramount Records———December 1925/January 1926 debut, credited as "Deacon L. J. Bates"; further sessions through the year at Marsh Laboratories in Chicago produced the breakout secular hit "Long Lonesome Blues." Solo — voice and guitar only, as on almost all his recordings.
1927Chicago sessions with pianist George PerkinsParamount Records (Mayo Williams)—Paramount Records——George Perkins (Piano)May–June 1927 sessions were among the very few of his career to feature a second musician rather than solo guitar.
1927Okeh Records session, AtlantaOkeh Records—Okeh Records———One-off session away from Paramount, March 14–15, 1927; recorded "Black Snake Moan" and "Matchbox Blues" in a single sitting. Solo.
1927"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (original), ChicagoParamount Records—Paramount Records———October 1927 original recording, credited as "Deacon L. J. Bates." Solo.
1928"See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (re-recording), ChicagoParamount Records—Paramount Records———Re-recorded in February 1928 after the October 1927 original sold well. Solo.
1929Gennett Studios session, Richmond, IndianaGennett Records—Gennett Records (Paramount lease)———September 24, 1929; recorded at the same Richmond, Indiana studio Charley Patton used the same year. Solo.
1929Final Chicago ensemble sessionParamount Records (Mayo Williams)—Paramount Records——Unidentified pianist (Piano), Unidentified banjoist (Banjo)October 1929, his last recordings before his death that December; one of the only sessions of his career cut with a small backing ensemble rather than solo.

Famous songs

01Long Lonesome Blues
02Black Snake Moan
03Matchbox Blues
04See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

External links

YouTube Music Wikipedia

Sources

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