Searching For Blind Lemon
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”― Henry David Thoreau
This past weekend The Signal surpassed the 1000 mark regarding the amount of you who have signed up for a free subscription. As Jonathan Richman recently reminded me, a number is just a number: we put importance on these random numbers that feature a lot of 0s. But that being said…it feels good! I spend a lot of time on this newsletter…and it is nice to think it is getting out there. A big part of growing this thing is YOU who pass it on to friends. Please continue to do so!!!!
***LET ME JUST SAY that the following piece is written with the acknowledgement that the world of the pre-war blues is a world of mystery, inaccuracy, debate and a lot of love***
People wonder why there were so many blind blues musicians. Blind Blake. Blind Willie McTell. Blind Boy Fuller. Blind Willie Johnson. Blind Joe Reynolds. And they are the ones who used “Blind” in their name…there are also legends like Sonny Terry, Gary Davis1, Perry Tillis who didn’t. The history of the blues is paved with incredible, innovative artists who could not see. An oft told reason for this is pretty simple to understand: what kind of work could a poor blind African American find in the early 20th century? Being a street musician was a way to earn a livelihood.
And there is always the concept that when one sense is taken away, the other senses are heightened, leading to new ways of thinking and being.
125 years ago today (this is disputed…so maybe I will reprint this on September 24!), one of the greatest blues musicians of all time was born. Born blind (this is disputed) in Couchman, Texas (which is now a ghost town, a little over an hour drive southeast of Dallas), Blind Lemon Jefferson was one of first blues recording superstars (not disputed). Jefferson picked up the guitar as a teenager…and soon after ventured to Dallas, playing with Lead Belly among others. As is written in The Paramount Book of the Blues2:
“Lemon Jefferson…was born blind and realized, as a small child, that life had withheld one glorious joy from him—sight. Then—environment began to play its important part in his destiny. He could hear…He learned to play a guitar, and for years he entertained his friends freely—moaning his weird songs as a means of forgetting his affliction. Some friends who saw great possibilities in him, suggested that he commercialize his talent.”
By the time the 1920s rolled around, he had established a name for himself, from Dallas to Waco, where, as witness Tom Shaw is quoted in a Yazoo reissue of Jefferson’s recordings3, “White or Colored, they were crazy about him.” Paramount Records brought him to Chicago to put him in the studio. The records they released not only established Jefferson as a mighty, successful artist, but along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, was pivotal in creating an industry around the blues.
It is said that his fingerpicking style was so complicated, even though he played with such ease, that his style was not an influence to other blues artists of his time. No one could copy it; he was utterly unique in his lifetime. Only a young T-Bone Walker was able to be mentored, taking Lemon’s techniques with him as he launched into a career that lasted into the 1970s.
With his success, Jefferson recorded a slew of incredible sides before his untimely death at 36 years of age in 1929. It is mind blowing to look at his body of work…and think about the legacy that he left behind. By the time the 1950s and 60s rolled around, musicians were able to study his songs and be influenced by his style…solidifying Blind Lemon Jefferson’s place as one of the greats of the recorded sound era. Jim Dickinson went so far as to title his memoir (which got changed posthumously by the book company), “Searching For Blind Lemon Jefferson” as if the concept of Jefferson was an ideal to strive for when living an artistic life.
Happy 125th Birthday (maybe!) Blind Lemon! You can hear a slew of Jefferson’s recordings for free at the mighty Internet Archive (no better way to celebrate the day).
“It’s insane to me that Giger hasn’t had the appreciation in the art world that he deserves—in mass culture he is a household name,” Shulan told Artnet News. “Giger created the aesthetics of science fiction undoubtedly, but his experimentation in creating a paranoia around technology was also hugely influential.”
Retracing Jack London’s Journey to the Klondike
As a person who wrote an honors thesis on Jack London, is reading White Fang with his daughter…who loves his novels and has deeply thought about his trips to the Klondike, this article is just an incredible read. I need to get to Alaska and do this trek.
Law enforcement may use noise cameras to enforce new Florida law against loud music
The Florida government continues to fight to be the industry leader in dumb stuff. Who wants to start a band called NOISE CAMERAS?
Roe v. rap: Hip-hop artists have long wrestled with reproductive rights
Fantastic article by A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia with a “sampling of rap songs from the past several decades that have dealt with the subject of abortion and reproductive rights in the era of Roe v. Wade.”
Between Going And Coming
By: Octavio Paz
Between going and staying
the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.
All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can’t be touched.
Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.
Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood.
The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theater of reflections.
I find myself in the middle of an eye,
watching myself in its blank stare.
The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.
The members of the REAL BLUES FORUM corrected me….early in his career, BLIND was attached to the beginning of Gary Davis’ records.
Found in the Yazoo reissue of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s music called “King of the Country Blues”
Same as footnote #2