Sunday, July 10, 2011

King of the Country Blues

The third Cosmic Hearse installment of blind Blues legends showcases one of the originators of sightless sound, Blind Lemon Jefferson. The Father of Texas Blues was born in 1893 to two Texas sharecroppers. Around 1917 Lemon moved to Dallas to perform and hang with his buddy Leadbelly. While in Dallas Jefferson met a young lad named Aaron Walker. He gave young Walker guitar lessons in exchange for the boy's services as a guide around the hectic streets of Dallas. Later Aaron would go on to legendary status as T-Bone Walker. Details around Jefferson's life are hazy at best. Some say he was a sweet soft-spoken gent, others would have you believe he was a drunken, whore-beating nightmare. What we do know is that he left an amazing body of work that displays some highly inventive playing, song writing, and vocalizing. You'd be blind crazy not to get this.

6 comments:

ido said...

Thanks so much for posting this. Jefferson was a true master of his art form.

the others said...

one comment? he's blacker than black metal...

margo said...

Really love this. Especially broke and hungry. Can't believe he used to pal around with Leadbelly...and can't believe i hadn't heard this before. Thanks very much.

Violet Son said...

Good stuff.

WayNe said...

I love this guy, but I believe as far as pre-war blues goes there are some better than him. But good stuff anyways!

EvanderPrime said...

Can't get enough of these blind Blues posts...I just can't take any other Blues artists serious anymore.