Blues recording began as primarily an uptown vaudeville form, sung by women who worked the theater circuit, accompanied by trained jazz musicians, and composed by professional songwriters. The first artist to take the blues back “down home” on a national scale was Blind Lemon Jefferson, the “King of Country Blues.” He was the first male blues recording star, and by far the most popular country bluesman of the 1920s in terms of record sales. In 1974 blues authority Pete Welding wrote: “There is scarcely a blues performer alive, major or minor, who has not acknowledged his debt to Lemon, remarking either on the striking character of his instrumental work, or on the high quality of his songs, many of which have become staples of the blues repertoire . . . Along with guitar virtuoso Lonnie Johnson, Lemon was probably the most widely influential blues artist of the 1920s. He undoubtedly paved the way for Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, Big Bill Broonzy, the urbane city blues of the 1930s, the so-called ‘Bluebird Beat,’ T-Bone Walker, and by extension, the modern electric blues of HIS emulators. He saturated, as well, the blues traditions of his native state, as is readily apparent in the work of Texas Alexander, Smokey Hogg, Lil’ Son Jackson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and scores of others.”
Among Jefferson’s most recognizable songs are “Match Box Blues”, recorded not only by Carl Perkins and the Beatles but by Albert King; “Jack o’ Diamonds Blues,” a favorite among Texas bluesmen; “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” a folk-blues standard; “Blind Lemon’s Penitentiary Blues,” “That Black Snake Moan,” “Rabbit Foot Blues,” “One Dime Blues,” and “Bad Luck Blues.” His songs have been recorded by bluesmen from all parts of the country, from Detroit and Chicago to Mississippi to the Piedmont and East Coast to Texas, Oklahoma and California.
Jefferson, a native of Couchman, Texas, was born on Sept. 24, 1893, according to the 1900 census, or Oct. 26, 1894, according to his registration for the World War I draft (required even though he was blind). By the time he was in his twenties, Lemon had moved to Dallas and had become successful enough, playing the streets, brothels, and other affairs, to buy himself a car, get married, and find himself a recording contract. He traveled far and wide, preceded by the fame of his records wherever he went. In Chicago, where he recorded most of his sides for Paramount, Lemon reportedly earned most of his income from playing house rent parties. On Dec. 19, 1929, less than two months after his final recording session, he died from causes that continue to be questioned. According to Welding, “Some accounts allege foul play, while others attribute his death to overexertion, heart failure, freezing to death in the bitter winter cold of Chicago, or some combination of these causes.” His body was shipped back to Texas for burial. Decades after his death a marker was finally placed on his grave, and today there are fans who visit the site and recall the words he sang: “See that my grave is kept clean.”
— Jim O’Neal
www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com