Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

Lemon Henry Jefferson was born on Sept. 24, 1893, in a small town in Freestone County in East Texas. Blind from birth, the moniker “Blind Lemon” followed him from a young age. Jefferson started singing in the church choir as a youngster, and he started learning guitar not long thereafter. In his teens, he was already playing at community events and busking in the streets.

Jefferson relocated to Dallas, where he was a mentor to Huddy Ledbetter — later known as Lead Belly. In the 1920s, Blind Lemon Jefferson was invited to Chicago, where he began recording for the Paramount Records label. Jefferson’s recordings proved hugely popular, with his two-sided 78s selling from coast to coast in the late 1920s. Some of his hits included “Match Box Blues,” “Mosquito Blues,” “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” and “Black Snake Moan” — the latter of which would become the title of a 2006 film starring Samuel L. Jackson as a former blues singer.

Blind Lemon Jefferson was among the music industry’s first successful folk-blues singers, and because his records sold so widely, he was hugely influential. Artists including Son House, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Chet Atkins and B.B. King all counted Blind Lemon Jefferson as a model for their own guitar playing. “He was majestic,” B.B. King said about Blind Lemon Jefferson. “It was unbelievable to hear him play. And the way he played with his rhythm patterns, he was way before his time, in my opinion. Blind Lemon was my idol.”

Listening to the track, “Rabbit Foot Blues,” which we’ll feature as our Classic Americana pick this week, you can hear how Blind Lemon Jefferson was ahead of his time. This song, recorded in 1926, features a guitar pattern that seems to prefigure boogie-woogie.

Jefferson’s vast catalogue of recorded music earned him the sobriquets “King of Country Blues” and “The Father of Texas Blues.” In addition to his blues recordings, Jefferson also recorded gospel tunes under the gently disguised moniker Deacon L. J. Bates.

Blind Lemon Jefferson struggled with his weight, and he died at the young age of 36 due to an apparent heart attack. Originally buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery in his native Freestone County, Texas, Jefferson was properly memorialized with a large granite headstone in 1997. Ten years later, the entire cemetery was named in his honor.

External Links

Blind Lemon Jefferson – Texas State Historical Association website