This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands.
Texas Blues
Texas blues sprung up out of the land. From oil fields. Lumber yards. Levee Camps.
But there’s really only one man who deserves credit for bringin’ this certain style out of the Lone Star state and out to the rest of the world. Blind Lemon Jefferson.
The Father of the Texas Blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson absorbed the music around him and made it his own. Took swinging jazz-style chords and added single string solo accompaniment. It was revolutionary.
And once the Texas style escaped, it was a wild success. In the early 1920’s, Blind Lemon sold tons of records and made some serious dough for the record companies.
Blind Lemon Jefferson was quite the travelin’ man. In Dallas, he met a young Texan name Aaron Thibeaux Walker. Aaron wanted to learn some licks. Blind Lemon taught him.
There’s really no way express just how important that meeting was. Aaron Walker soon became known as T-Bone Walker. The man who’d change the blues and rock and roll. The first real shredder. Idol and inspiration to Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix. Any guitarist worth their salt’s got a little T-Bone in ‘em.
And after T-Bone Walker came so many more… Texas blues titans like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Freddie King.
And Texas Blues spilled into rock and roll with Lone Star natives Steve Miller, ZZ Top, Johnny Winter and another Dallas boy. You know his name. Stevie Ray Vaughan.
