Cultural & Ethnic Studies Eco-ability The Complex Embodiment of Blind Lemon Jefferson

176 Chapter The Complex Embodiment of Blind Lemon Jefferson Jonathan . Lower Stark State College Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Lemon Jefferson was the blues . He played the blues . He traveled like a bluesman , and he was blind , a stereotypical signifier of a blues musician . But more than any of those things , Jefferson played the with a tenderness that matched the sad , strained voice that made him an American music icon . Jefferson first recorded in 1925 at the height of America Jazz Age . Beginning with Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds 1920 hit Crazy Blues , jazz and blues defined American music for the next two decades . Bessie Smith 1923 contract with Columbia Records , and Ma title as Mother of the Blues signified the enormous financial potential of the blues , whether the acoustic blues or the jazzy classic blues . Record companies soon noticed the demand for African American blues for Black created the genre of ethnic music , otherwise known as Race Records , to rival the commercial success of African American women vaudeville singers . Gramophone owners and emerging record executives recognized the potential of reproducing Black music for a mass audience . The classic blues needed

177 a rival , and they found it in the male country blues . The race record industry called the country blues , the blues , and found a ready consumer market in both the South and the North following the Great Migration into cities like New York and Chicago . The nostalgia of the past drove many of these Southern migrants to buy blues records . This trend lasted for over a decade and firmly established the race record genre in American popular culture . Blind Lemon Jefferson proved to be key to this success by navigating the color line and making the best of his segregated environment to become the first country blues singer to find national fame in both the South and North . It was the ability to navigate the environment , his , that proved to be his success . Jefferson used his environment to his advantage , whether this environment was physical , social , geographical , or emotional . Physically , Jefferson was born blind . He used his blindness as a and a performance trope . Socially , his disability was deemed harmless thus , he could cross lines of segregation because he did not present a threat to the status quo . Geographically , he used his upbringing as a sharecropper in the South for lyrical topics . Emotionally , he pulled on the of listeners with his songs of poverty and woe . All of these traits , in turn , appealed to fellow Southerners , as well as migrants nostalgic for home . Finally , his use of allowed him a cathartic release to the constraints of Jim Crow restrictions and to the perceived limitations of his blindness . Together , Jefferson used various forms of his environment to make a career and a meaningful life in an era during which he was oppressed both physically and socially . More importantly , opening up avenues for a more fulsome

178 examination of disabled people lives showed the possibility of dynamic responses to oppression as well as their potential to use their social environment to survive and thrive . This is . Three interdependent developments , the Great War , dynamic growth in the agricultural and industrial sectors , and mass migration to cities , contributed to a social change in the country , particularly among urban African The intersections of race and disability impacted the environment Jefferson survived , and at the same time , thrived . Jefferson challenged notions of ability and crossed the color line to achieve both musical success and social protest . For Jefferson , these changes began in the rural South during the early century . The gravel and did roads that singers walked , drove , or were now paved , reducing travel time considerably , and connected rural Southerners to the rest of America for the first time . Railroad tracks crisscrossed the South , heaving up train depots in just about every town they passed . Travel became synonymous with blues musicians . Both the landscape and the social spaces of the rural South were changing and becoming increasingly connected with the rest of the country , despite the traditional history that the rural South was unchanging . The Black press included on blues musicians next to jazz profiles , and the American consumer age had emerged . The popularity of the country blues took off with the success of race records from artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926 . In some ways , race records conformed to the . Jim Crow ?

The Blues and Black Southerners ( Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press , 2010 ) 130 .

179 segregated and racist nature of the country and its long tradition of colonialism by taking Black music and creating a national market for it among White consumers . Throughout the blues musicians began to perform both religious and secular songs in bars , street corners and train depots . The rail and the road led to the big city , connecting the country as never before . The nature of travel was changing , and so was the music . In the church , gospel and lose favor to singing out of the modern hymnals , and blues and jive take over the Blues musicians played what the various audiences wanted to pop songs of the day . The popularity of Jefferson and his contemporaries followed their success north into the industrial cities , as they sang songs about life and reworked old . Jefferson first recording on Paramount records , I Want to Be Like Jesus in my Heart , marked him as one of the first male blues musicians to make a substantial impact as a singer and guitarist . His second recording , the secular Got the Blues was the first blues single by a black male singer , and earned him the title King of the Country Blues biographer Giles even referred to Jefferson as the archetype of all , as record labels tried to copy his success by recruiting dozens of musicians to northern cities . Jefferson has also been credited with being the first blues singer to enjoy commercial success marking the race record genre just as financially viable as vaudeville and jazz records . Over the next three years , Jefferson became the leading recording artist for Paramount Records , who advertised his Sterling A . Brown . Negro Folk Expressions , Ballads , and Work Songs , Vol . 14 , No . 1953 ) 60 .

180 songs like Booster Blues as real , blues by a real blues Paramount released nearly one hundred sides a day in 1926 . Eventually , the race record genre outsold vaudeville and jazz releases , marking the and as the race record era . The commercial success of the country blues motivated record companies to travel south with portable recording equipment , or to invite southern singers to northern studios on the new system of railroads and highways . Jefferson came north to play music on his own in 1925 . He was one of the first artists signed by Paramount Records in 1926 and one of their most successful artists of all time . Jefferson was inducted into the inaugural class of the Blues Hall of Fame nearly a half a century after his death in 1929 . His life was short , but his music made an indelible mark on the future of American music . Race Records and the Country Blues Jefferson was one of the first male country blues musicians to achieve commercial success in the North and South . The few existing sources of his life and career capture the life of an African American musician who came from nothing and made a career out of music . Music also allowed Jefferson to engage in alternative forms of political participation and escape despite the segregated music industry . Integral to the popularity of blues music during the early century was the expanding American music marketplace . Mass culture , Cohen writes , offered blacks the

181 ingredients from which to construct a new , urban black ' Yet , mass culture was notjust northern , or urban . In the 19205 , Black Americans increasingly participated in a culture of race records whether they resided in Chicago South Side or Mississippi Delta ' This widespread reach also allowed African American musicians to gain greater independence and influence through cultural forms . Throughout the , as Jefferson wandered across the dusty east Texas fields in search of barrel houses or caught the trains north to Chicago , the race record commercial genre had begun to emerge . The quick rise of the race record industry during the Roaring Twenties made it a breakout decade for many musical artists . This popularity carried over to the Great Depression era when an estimated blues recordings were made by about different artists , all classified as race Blues music became a market force . Its sudden success reveals the complex development of race in American music . How Black musicians navigated the segregated world of music and society , while being revered for their talents but separated by the color of their skin , helps explain how a bluesman like Jefferson balanced on the color line . The race record industry , for example , employed African American plantation stereotypes , revealing some of the social anxiety surrounding the increasing number of Black migrants in the North . As Black migrants moved north , they held onto the past because it was where many family members still lived . Whites , noticing the rising population of African Cohen , Making a New Deal Industrial Workers in Chicago , New York Cambridge University Press , 1990 ) 131 . Ibid , 129 .

182 Americans in northern cities , expressed their uneasiness through their desire for the way things used to be , equally nostalgic for the past . Both began buying blues records in large numbers . The commercial market associated with the phonograph and the radio were two momentous innovations and played an instrumental role in the rise of blues . Together , they propagated a distinct African American culture through music . By 1926 blues records were selling between five and six million albums annually , and by 1941 over thirty million were sold each During the record collectors were targeted by record labels like Records , who announced that the new customers were responsible , specifically naming White college students and Race records were so popular that White artists began to mimic Black jazz and blues Advertisements for blues records appeared by the hundreds in the foremost Black newspaper , the Chicago Defender , during the . The Defenders record advertising recalled the South as home , enticing readers to participate in that memory , despite the racial stereotypes used to sell the music . The Defenders ads for country blues featured artists accompanied with guitars , banjos , and . These ads characterized the men as lonely journeying to and from the South . Jefferson was portrayed as an old man alone on Christmas Eve in the city , a convict , Robert Kraft Stage to the Musicians and the Sound Revolution , Johns Hopkins University Press , 1996 ) William , Recorded Music in American Life ( New York Oxford University Press , 2003 ) 172 . Blind Lemon Jefferson , Matchbox Blues , accessed September , 2021 )

183 strapped into the electric chair , and a drifting hobo asleep on the scaffolding beneath a freight car . Such images portrayed the destitute environment musicians and disabled were forced to live in . Likewise , many Southern migrants knew something about moving far away . The lyrics and advertisements of race records helped forge a bond among Black readers by presenting the South as shared An advertisement for Jefferson song Matchbox Blues captures the Southern stereotypes of the shotgun house , wagon , and the imperious Black matriarch . The title of the song , along with the image of the wagon , suggests travel , but with only a suitcase to make the long journey . The image may have been stereotypical , but it was also nostalgic for those already living in northern cities . Jefferson music then provides the link to the past and the present . Jazz producers already knew the popularity of Black music in the North among White listeners , and race record companies cashed in on their use of stereotypes by marketing them to Southerners , and more specifically , African American migrants in the North . moreover , the desire to escape the environment of the migrants . Some musicians were able to capture this longing in their music and lyrics , endearing them to listeners . One advertisement for Jefferson Sunshine captures Northern migrants sense of respectability as seen in their outfits . From the ad text it is clear that blindness is part of the advertisement , but still allows Jefferson respectability through his suit and Mark , Extra ! Chicago Defender Race Record Ads Show South from Afar , Southern Cultures , Vol . 13 , No . Fall 2007 ) 107 .

184 tie photograph . He may have been from the South , but he was still cultured . This depiction is a marked contrast from the image of Jefferson with his guitar and music . While these advertisements drove excitement about migrating north , it also captures the desire for suitable employment . Again , this publicity captures the environment of , yet Jefferson Rambler Blues advertisement shows the lack of work in the South along with the danger of , something a traveling musician and a blind laborer knew Jefferson music was popular in the North and South alike . His second blues release in 1926 , Long Lonesome Blues , was the first country blues record . Long Lonesome Blues captures the unique way Jefferson merges rhythm and melody to create the essence of an entire band . While Jefferson is well known for his ability to mimic ragtime rhythms with his guitar work , it was his voice that first struck listeners . His vocal range was unparalleled . When he hit the upper registers , the listener could almost feel the heartbreak in his voice . In the same song he could mimic the howl of a bloodhound , the chug of the railroad trains , or the cry of an angry lover . A friend of Jefferson , Quince Cox , remembered some of his train platform performances He could play anything You hear one of them around a wolf or possum or a coon or something on the track , he could do that good , too he squeal just like a dog . Make it sound good , 11 Ibid . 11 Alan and Jay , Deep The Other Side of Dallas ( College Station Texas A Press , 2013 ) 81 .

185 Besides his broad vocal range , Jefferson may be best known for his ability to cover any genre of music . This versatility made his records immediate hits . The effect of Jefferson success spread the popularity of the blues across the South . Wasn nobody else playin what he played , guitarist Thomas Shaw remembered , adding , he could play anything you asked him to Jefferson shrewdly skirted the line of race and popular music in order to perform a unique set based on particular demographics . This kind of tailoring brought him into proximity with many genres of music , from blues to hillbilly and anything in between . By 1926 Jefferson was recording a variety of music , and more significantly , crossing the music color line . In the , blues , swing , and jazz sold well in African American and White markets , and for the first time Black music , as has acknowledged , was crossing the color suggests that the advent of the recording industry allowed blues musicians to sing their stories for the audience of southern black , voteless sharecroppers , stevedores , domestics , workers , and The musical and lyrical creations of Black music reflected divisions within American society and offered a voice for African Americans . Yet , what makes the blues even more significant is how it came to be accepted by other races as 12 Alan . Blind Lemon Jefferson The Myth and the Man , Black Music Research Journal , Vol . 20 , No . 2000 ) 13 Ba ra ka , Blues People The Negro Experience in White America and the Music that Developed from It ( New York Morrow Paperback , 1963 ) 87 . 14 ,

186 well . In this way , the recording studio permitted indirect exchange of Black music and culture through chain stores , local distributors and mail order 15 The country was strictly segregated , but musicians were beginning to break down the color barrier in music . and women performed in towns and from the Carolinas to the heart of Texas . Some of these musicians had been playing for years , yet this era marked the first time their music had been recorded and therefore was available throughout the country and eventually the world . Jefferson songs like Got the Blues caught the attention of Black and White musicians alike and were covered or copied for generations . and folklorist John carried songs into the northeastern cities and drew the rapt attention of White audiences at the Modern Language Association ( conference in 1934 . Attendees believed they were listening to the uncontaminated , original music of African American folk songs , another lasting impact of American musical It was the first time the membership had heard the country blues . Jefferson opened that door , and more than a few blues artists copied his style . Everybody else was standin around him , they could do what he could do , Shaw remarked . Whenever he pull his guitar out , he was 15 John Otto and Augustus Burns , Black and White Cultural Interaction in the Early South Race and Hillbilly Music , Vol . 35 , No . 1974 ) 414 . 15 Publications of the Modern Language Association , 49 , Supplement ( 1934 )

187 the king 17 The years after Jefferson Paramount Recordings marked a golden age for the country blues . The environment of , Texas , led Jefferson to write Matchbook Blues in 1926 . There were many times Jefferson felt like the subject from Matchbook Blues , often part of everyday Black life . Part of Jefferson presentation involved playing on audiences empathy for the plight of African Americans and the disabled . It was also something he knew intimately . Nearly half of his songs relate to the disenfranchised and downtrodden , such as Bad Luck Blues I wan na go home and I ai got sufficient clothes Doggone my bad luck soul Wan na go home and I ai got sufficient clothes I mean sufficient , talking about clothes Well , I wan na go home , but I ai got sufficient clothes I bet my money and I lost it , Lord , it so Doggone my bad luck soul , lost it , ai it so ?

I mean lost it , about so , now I never bet on the no more I gon na run cross town , catch that southbound Santa Fe Doggone my bad luck soul , Lord , that Santa Fe I mean the Santy , about Fe Be on my way to what they call lovin Tennessee . 17 David Evans , Musical Innovation in the Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson , Black Music Research Journal , Vol . 20 , No . 2000 )

188 Kathryn Jefferson , a distant relative of Lemon , praised him as a great songster who came up the hard She listened to him play near the old cotton gin in Flat , Texas . At this point Jefferson was still a teenager , yet he already knew where to perform , outside the warehouses and cotton engines , as well as what songs to play , the pop songs of the day . The fact that Cox recalls young Lemon performing Inside the business district of displays his ability to cross racial divides . Jefferson was so talented that kids , White and Black alike , followed him around just to listen to him play . Mattie Dancer remembered she was crazy about Blind Lemon and her older sister Bessie , claimed to be in love with Jefferson was not the only guitar performer in town , yet he is the only one still remembered . Dancer recalled that he often sang Going to It is clear he was transcendent on guitar from a young age and knew he was bound for bigger things . Many blues musicians learned musical techniques at home from their mothers and aunts . It is unclear if this was also the case for a young Jefferson . What is clear is that Jefferson traveled to perform from a young age , just as nearly all country blues musicians had done growing up . Not only would he travel to Chicago in the near future , but his country blues would become a hit all the way north in the Windy Kathryn Jefferson called her relative a great songster because he played a variety of genres . He performed ragtime in traveling vaudeville shows , hillbilly music for White laborers outside the cotton warehouses , and string band accompaniment 18 See Robert , Blind Lemon Jefferson His Life , His Death , and His Legacy ( Fort Worth Press , 2002 )

189 throughout Texas . Jefferson performed on the nearby streets of , Marlin , and . In Buffalo , Texas , he met a young Sam ' Hopkins , who went on to cover many of Jefferson songs . Jefferson often reprimanded his playing exclaiming , Boy , you got to play it By his late teens Jefferson was a songster , performing a variety of music in everything from juke joints to farm parties and sometimes even church picnics . By his twentieth birthday he had performed at medicine and circus shows , celebrations , tent , and sporting events . He even tailored popular songs to ragtime so he could perform dance measures popular in New York City and Chicago , like the Black Bottom and the Charleston . This breadth shows that Harlem Renaissance cultural forms were not confined to Harlem or to the North in general . Black culture was being performed and consumed from the North to the South . Before long , Jefferson was one of the most popular entertainers in Central Texas with original songs like Mosquito Moan , a complaint against the common farm pest , and Rising High Water Blues about the prevalence of natural disasters in the flat Texas fields . Other songs commented on Black poverty and oppression . Many songs centered on labor and the prison Hangman Blues , Prison Cell Blues , Penitentiary Blues , and Chair Blues all depict the injustice of the criminal justice system in Texas . Jefferson friend Arthur Caner stated that while Lemon was always a joker , he believed strongly in treating people right , and complained when society did not treat them justly . Nearly all of his topical songs reflect this sense of fairness While a mean ' hangman is waitin ' to tighten up that noose 19 Handy , Father of the Blues An ( New York Da Capo Press , 1969 )

190 Oh , the mean ' hangman is waitin ' to tighten up that noose Lord , I so scared , I trembling in my shoes Jury heard my case and they said my hand was red Judge heard my case and said my hand was red And judge , he sentenced me , be hanging I dead Dallas After World War , Jefferson left the dusty country towns of Coachman and behind to find more profitable work in Dallas . In 1900 the Black population of Dallas was less than , but after it more than doubled . Jefferson remained a musician , but needed work and relocated to Dallas . Even though there were plenty of jobs , his blindness kept him from many of them . The African American entertainment section of Dallas was called Deep , an area of Elm Street and east of the downtown district . Here , at Elm Street and Central Avenue was the Central Track railroad stop , where day laborers were taken out to the cotton fields of Collin County and the constant flow of migrants looking for work arrived hourly . Deep was , according to Jefferson biographer , marked by clusters of pawnshops , tailors , second hand clothing stores , shoeshine parlors , cafes , and sporting This description neglects to mention the many bars that also doubled as African American banks . Jefferson knew the bars held the cash from paychecks , along with the men looking to spend it . Referring to the blues singers on Central Track , Crowds would cluster round them , Paul Oliver described , commenting on how the coins would and their hats and tin Along with the Central Track railroad platform , 21 . 21 Paul Oliver , The Story of the Blues ( New York Cambridge University Press , 1960 )

191 Jefferson found the two best places to perform in Deep . Match Box Blues captures a number of Jefferson characteristics his penchant for travel , the constant search for work , but also his ability to move around the country like any other Black man . I sitting here will a matchbox hold my clothes ?

I ai got so many matches , but I got so far to go . These lyrics capture the of being a blues musician . The fact that even a tiny matchbox is too large to hold his goods was not lost on the listener . A matchbox holds nothing but matches , not the cigarettes , just matches to bum a cigarette from a passerby . This song mocks such abject positions many people faced when traveling to find work , without even a cigarette to light , let alone a suitcase to hold clothes . Lawrence Levine believes the theme of using comedy to describe serious disadvantages was common in Black music The use of black song as a vehicle for the expression of trouble and woe was modified by a characteristic optimism which was based upon the strong sense of imminent change that pervaded black The occupation of a traveling songster was a ray of hope for a disadvantaged , impaired Black man . Jefferson spoke openly about his blindness and the lack of employment opportunities it entitled , hoping the matchbox suitcase was only temporary . Dallas was the place to be for a Texas bluesman . Together , Jefferson and performed the popular songs of the day or topical songs about traveling and 22 Lawrence Levine . Black Culture and Black Consciousness Folk Thought from to Freedom ( New York Oxford University Press , 2007 ) 261 .

192 work heard in Silver City Bound , or songs about current events such as The Lead Belly would memorialize his time in Dallas with the song Blind Lemon Blues , which John recorded for the Library of Congress six years after Jefferson death She sit down an tol her little boy , His wife says , I want son to play the piano a piece . Since you been gone so long , Let him know what he done learned . Since you been gone . And the little boy sit down , begin to play , His little piano a piece . The move from Dallas to Chicago was a momentous decision , but for Jefferson it would pay off . Besides Dallas , Jefferson traveled as far as Houston to perform . He frequently performed with White hillbilly and like Smith and Clarence Ashley Blue Ridge Band , showing that music was performed and consumed by Black and White alike . Like the mobility of African Americans and the disabled , the segregation of music was often crossed . Yet , he was still struggling to make ends meet . Like many other Texan African Americans , Jefferson attempted to supplement his music income with manual such as cotton farming or warehouse packing . Yet , manual labor was hard to come by . His blindness was a deterrent for employers , as some jobs required sight , and the stigma of the invalid handicapped was strong . Instead , Jefferson turned to other sources of income . For a summer he was a novice wrestler , traveling throughout central Texas to perform . Even here , the novelty of a disabled wrestler

193 attracted audiences to the arenas where he was billed as the Blind Jefferson as a wrestler shows the of available jobs for disabled Americans , but wrestling was also a form of escape from the realities of poverty . Like wrestling , The blues , writes , were conceived , inherited , and reshaped by aspiring professional musicians who saw music as a escape from economic and social 24 Jefferson also knew what forms of to use to make a successful living such as performing as a wrestler when it presented a promising financial opportunity . African American musicians like Jefferson did not sit idly by as vassals of White control , but used their music to define themselves and share their struggle . Many Black performers saw themselves as messengers of a counterculture that threatened the dominant White power structure . Black musicians masked their lyrics in order to employ what Du Bois labeled One ever feels his American , a Negro two souls , two thoughts , two unreconciled African American musicians used both sides of the color line to achieve success , which also showcased opposing identities . Their allowed for a Black consciousness that was not apolitical or infantile , but socially charged . suggests interpreting the blues as counterculture allows modern to understand that blues musicians were necessarily accepting of prevailing Jim Crow social norms while at 23 Antoinette Mitchell , Blind Lemon Jefferson The Blind Composer , Daily News , December 18 , 1976 , 24 , xi . 25 . Du Bois , The Souls of Black ( New York Dover , 1994 )

194 the same time hoping to evade or subvert 25 Paul Gilroy writes musicians derived their special power derives from a doubleness , their unsteady location simultaneously inside and outside the conventions , assumptions , and aesthetic rules which distinguish and The modern blues musician lyrics also countered traditional African American stereotypes . Sometimes Black consciousness was seen in protest , rather than the subservient representation constructed by and the record industry . Double consciousness was the counterculture of African Americans , and in this case , the hidden transcripts of blues music . Some African Americans supplemented their incomes or even made a career out of music . Yet , odd jobs , such as music performances , wrestling , or bootlegging were still hard to come had to possess a certain skill . Jefferson hook was his blindness . Like the novelty of a blind street musician , a blind wrestler merged entertainment with and afforded him a side job others would not have even been considered for . Jefferson may have simply been taking a job where a job was possible , but his blindness allowed access where others were overlooked . These types of jobs were not only potential areas for disenfranchised African Americans to work , but were often the only jobs open to disabled Americans . And a steady job was a sign of respectability . One sign of respectability , particularly among African Americans , and perhaps more so , the disabled , was clothing . Once Jefferson considered himself a successful musician , he sought out Deep finest couturier , Model Tailors . According to Isaac 25 , 17 . 27 Paul Gilroy , The Modernity and Double Consciousness ( Cambridge Harvard University Press , 1993 ) 73 .

195 , son of the owner of Model Tailors , They Deep customers had to have good a good hat and a Model Tailors So , in the spring of 1925 , when record salesman sent Chicago Paramount Records talent scout Mayo Williams a copy of a scratchy Blind Lemon recording , Jefferson career as a professional musician began the first thing he did was head to Model Tailors . It was Jefferson immediate popularity in Chicago , as well as the Records Artists Night , that captured the nascent popularity of blues in northern cities , thereby obliterating the myth that the blues was rural . Music culture was fluid , moving north and south with the various waves of migrants . Likewise , Levine perpetuates such a myth , writing that the hybrid blues of the female Classic Blues singers were supplemented by the more traditional sounds of a steady stream of whose regional styles were given wide exposure for the first 29 Of the two known Jefferson photographs he is wearing a suit and tie in stock photos of blues recording artists . Musician Victoria may agree , stating the suit and tie was the way Jefferson usually carried himself . Jefferson and his contemporaries were , meaning they played what the audience wanted to hear , whether moaning to a , plucking along to a classic ragtime tune , or accompanying a female vocalist complete with a horn section . recalls that together they got so good that the would try to 28 , 29 . 29 Levine , 228 .

196 hire both of us at the same time . We did it when we could and loved By the time of the golden age of blues , Jefferson , among hundreds of others , traveled back and forth from sultry in the South to the windy back alleys of Chicago performing for sizable audiences in northern cities and southern towns alike playing popular songs to pay the bills . Once again , it was Jefferson ability to perform in the best places that allowed him to pay the bills . Jefferson then took these talents to Paramount Records . Chicago By the winter of 1925 Jefferson had left a muddy Dallas for a snowy Chicago . In Chicago he was the first blues singer to enjoy commercial For Paramount Records , he marked the future success of the segregated race records genre . For Jefferson , this move was the beginning of his career and the end of his life . Jefferson legitimized the country blues in the northern cities , thereby shattering the myth of regional music divisions . It was the routes of music that mattered more than the roots of music . Even after this migration , folklorist John scoured the rural South in search of authentic Black folk music . There was no such thing . Everybody in Chicago listened to the country blues Jefferson was just the first to make money for the recording industry . At the turn of the century Chicago was the fastest growing city in the United States . Much of this growth was created by African Americans moving north for employment . In 1860 fewer than eight percent of African Americans lived outside of the Daphne Duval Harrison , Blues Queens of the 19205 ( New Brunswick , Rutgers University Press , 1998 ) 95 .

197 South by 1930 the number had risen to Yet , while employment may have been a major factor , Black people were fleeing the South to escape a variety of factors . The next great wave of Black migrants more than doubled the population of Chicago . Industrial jobs were the catalyst for men during . The prevalence of Jim Crow in every aspect of their lives may have been the ultimate motivation to move north after the Great War . One advocate for migration was the city leading Black newspaper , the Chicago Defender . The circulation of the Defender was evidence of this growth . It reached only a few thousand in 1910 , but by 1920 . Between 1916 and 1920 , the Black population of Chicago more than doubled to Jefferson song Broke and Hungry captures why all these people were moving north and looking for an entirely new life I broke and hungry , Ragged and dirty too . I said I broke and hungry , Ragged and dirty too . Mama , if I clean up , Can I go home with you ?

These new residents were looking for entertainment after the stress of a long move and a new environment . The country blues was both a comfort to new residents and a hope for a better future . This dual effect can be seen in Jefferson himself , who held onto the memory of a Southern home and yearned for the beginning of a fresh start . 31 Cheryl Lynn , To Ask for an Equal Chance African Americans in the Great Depression ( Maryland , 2010 ) 32 William Barlow , Looking Up at Down The Emergence of Blues ( Philadelphia Temple University Press , 1989 )

198 lyrics capture both the prospect of a good job in the North , as well as the nostalgia for his Southern hometown . In Jefferson Rambler Blues he shows how migrating north was not an easy choice , nor was it without heartache . Many migrants left loved ones behind and longed to be back down south with them again . Yet , Jefferson also shows how necessity drove many African Americans north in search of better opportunities and lifestyles , as he sings about someone he left behind as not The song conveys how sometimes one must leave the past behind for a better future , even if that means the loss of home and loved ones When I left my home , I left my baby She keeps me worried and bothered in the mind . Now , do your house look lonesome , when your baby Pack up and leave Now , do your house look lonesome , when your baby Pack up and leave You may drink your moonshine , but , baby , your heart Ai free . One related theme that is synonymous with the blind blues musician is that of the itinerant wanderer in the image of riding the rail or hiking the gravel roads . Along those roads and depots the wanderer finds the crossroads . While freedom of movement was one of the few autonomous choices African Americans could make , this decision came with consequences . Picking up one entire life to move hundreds of miles across the country was a significant life choice , and the crossroads represented a place of decision making . It is the itinerant wanderer that most often comes to these crossroads with little direction , a few cents , and fingers full of musical talent , hoping to find a new path to follow . Since the motif of the crossroads symbolizes difficult life decisions , it is only fitting that the traveling blues musician would adopt the theme while spending much of his life

199 on the road . Musician Mance this concept , as Blind Lemon hung out round on the track , down on Deep from until six that evening . Then it an he git somebody to carry im Life on the road meant living on the road . It became home to the blues musician . It was Jefferson ability to navigate the environment , or his , that provided opportunities . The road and its intersections held a power for blues musicians . Jefferson paints a picture of escape , love , and happiness in his ' Sugar I got your picture , and I going to put it in a frame I got your picture , I put it in a frame , Sugar And then if you leave town , we can find you just the same . In Sunshine his attitude seems much less optimistic Gon na leave on the Sunshine Special , goin in on the Fe . Do say nothin ' about that Katy , because it taken my brown from me . The road held both its positive vibes as well as its downsides . The road is free , but with freedom comes choice and many choices lead down paths unforeseen . It is only once the crossroads have been reached that the decision is put to the test . Jefferson lyrics painted a picture of African Americans moving north , along with the emotions and decisions facing this migration . The crossroads are a recurring theme in Black tradition , representing not only the past and decisions about the future , but also the frightful days of the Middle Passage , to the Underground Railroad and the days of slavery , to Western migrations . The traveling musician represents these hard choices . Traveling the rail and the road , these musicians were crossing borders . 33 , Blind Lemon Jefferson . 10 .

200 In the early century these musicians may not have been running from slave drivers , but they were running from something similar . They were running from sharecropping , from plantations , and from the lack of jobs and racism in the South . The idea of making a living playing music , rather than toiling in the fields , must have held quite an allure . For the first time in their lives these musicians were free to make their own decisions . The road was not simply a ticket out of the past , but also , possibly for the first time , a chance to make their own judgments and decisions . Jefferson , though , already had a promising job in 1925 in commercial music . His success recording the country blues with Paramount Records became the model for record companies . That spring , Paramount Records , along with a number of other recording companies , sent field equipment to southern cities or invited southern singers to their home studios in the ' While the classic blues of Bessie Smith was already immensely popular , they relied on professional songwriters and jazz . This kind of production cost money and required a variety of musicians . Country blues , on the other hand , could be recorded outside a singer home or right on the street , even in prisons where discovered Lead Belly . The country blues were easy to record , and Jefferson was more than willing to participate . Jefferson recorded singles for Paramount Records from 1925 to 1929 . Songs like Dry Southern , Blues , and Long Lonesome Blues were hits that were covered by his contemporaries . Wartime Blues and Broke and Hungry commented on social issues . Matchbook Blues and See That My Grave Is Kept Clean 34 , 31 .

201 made Jefferson a modern classic . Wartime Blues presents a unique perspective of being blind during an international conflict by showing both the heartache of deployment and the emasculation of the inability to serve in the war because of a disability . What you gon na do when they send your man to the war ?

What you gon na do , send your man to the war ?

What you gon na do when they send your man to the war ?

I gon na drink muddy water , gon na sleep in a hollow log . Ai got nobody , I all here by myself Got nobody , all here by myself Got nobody , all here by myself Well , these women do care but the men do need me here . Between recording sessions at Paramount , Jefferson was popular in the Black Chicago communities . He performed on the streets , on the , and was hired to play in nightclubs and private socials . While Oliver declares the Paramount recordings of Jefferson as a remarkable series of recordings which preserve the blues in its folk form at the point of transition from the field holler to the street corner and the barroom , Jefferson was simply recording what Paramount wanted to hear , the blues . In the nightclubs he performed ragtime or reworked his own blues songs to fit the popular dances of Chicago , just as he did in the dusty barrooms of Deep . Just as he moved north to south , so too did the styles of blues music . Paramount Records publication of the Paramount Book of Blues used the stereotypical colonial image of the country blues as southern African Americans singing weird , sad melodies at their work and play , and unconsciously he Jefferson began to imitate his fate in song , and Jefferson blindness was a Here , the oppressed plight of both African Americans and the disabled are

202 combined by Paramount Records to create the ultimate image of destitution . But , it also maintained the myth of the blues . Music scholar Jeff Todd believes the insincere depictions of African Americans in race record advertisements were maintained because record labels were comfortable with illustrations of black It is more likely though that White store owners selling race records were more comfortable with the image of African Americans . Even the Chicago Defender expressed Jefferson music was real blues by a real blues singer who plays the guitar in a real southern The image of a disabled African American did not frighten White listeners and advertised nostalgia for Black listeners . White listeners were also drawn to this nostalgia . Paramount Records and the Defender knew this performance was all a farce . Jefferson knew it was all a farce . The artist Blind Lemon Jefferson , though , made it part of his act . And his records sold . Scholars have since unpacked the racist stereotypes used in popular cultural forms in the history of the country . Some have shown how the oppressed artists used such stereotypes to achieve social gain . writes that the advertising illustrations of blues songs placed the plantation stereotype more As for the city black , he was invited , by the jive talk , to laugh at his country He continues , stating the listener was supposed to laugh at the predicament of the character whose troubles he sang Jefferson illustrated another archetype of the oppressed , the 35 Jeff Todd , Blues A Musical and ( Chicago University of Illinois Press , 1977 ) 204 . 35 , 38 . 37 , 254 .

203 disabled . He merged both forms , or at least abided by the decisions of Paramount Records , to advertise both his race and disability . What is more , these advertisements were intended for both urban and rural consumers , in the North or South , through local retailers . Therefore , the notion that the blues was southern , or rural , was also part of the advertisement that Jefferson portrayed . Jefferson , though , used to navigate race and disability to achieve a modicum of musical success . Conclusion By 1929 the Chicago labeled Jefferson the King of the Country Blues . Only a couple months after the Stock Market Crash that would also mark the end of the race record genre and nearly the recording industry altogether , Jefferson disappeared into a Chicago snowstorm and never returned . In December , Jefferson life came to a sudden end . Just like his life , his death is shrouded in myth . The details of his death have long been debated , although most accounts agree he died on the South Side streets of Chicago in December 1929 . Jazz historian John said Jefferson left Paramount studios in the late afternoon to play at a house party and was found dead in the street early the next morning , with snow drifting over his His producer , Arthur , believed he had a heart attack while waiting on his driver . But this cause suggests his driver either left him behind or never came to pick him up . Jefferson old manager , Mayo Williams , claims the singer collapsed in his car and was abandoned by his Some argue Jefferson died from more nefarious means . Mance argues he was beaten , robbed , and left to die in the street , while Mattie Dancer states she heard he was

204 shot during a performance . Others suggest he had simply left the house party and got lost in the streets during the blizzard . the Chicago Defender proclaimed it was Chicago worst snowstorm in a series of particularly snowy weather in the windy city that Some , like Son House and Charley Patton , claim even to have played with him years after his Paramount Records sent Jefferson body back to Texas , where he was buried in the frozen ground on New Year Day , 1930 , at Smith Chapel Primitive Baptist Church No . Two or three hundred people came to the funeral , black and white , to watch his coffin lowered into the In March , blues singer John recorded a single titled Wasn It Sad About The of this record was a sermon by Rev . Emmett entitled Death of Blind What makes one look past Jefferson ability and ingenuity is an aspect , often associated with blues singers blindness . Like the story of in exchange for musical talent , the same is true with blindness . The lack of sight that Jefferson had to live with is often associated with his supreme musical abilities , the blind genius , doomed and gifted by fate to trade his in return for his artistic The image of a blind blues player sitting in a train depot with a steel guitar on his lap singing songs about the rough life on the road is a staple of blues iconography , but more 38 Four Dead in Chicago Worst Snowstorm , The Chicago Defender , March 29 , 1930 , 39 , 47 . 41 Joseph , Blindness as Rhetorical Trope in Blues Discourse , Black Music Research Journal , Vol . No . 1988 ) 178 .

205 so , it was a paying job , and it was just as rewarding as playing in local juke joints , to the point that Jefferson may have played along the street or the train tracks more than he did indoors . For listeners , Jefferson use of his various environments allowed him a modicum of financial success , rare for Americans oppressed by both their race and physical . The of blind blues musicians gave some of them a way out of blind institutions and pauperism . Blind Lemon Jefferson played the blues . He traveled like a bluesman , and he was blind . But , more than any of those things , he played the blues with such remarkable talent that he became one of the successful blues artists . Discussion Questions . What was the role of Jefferson blindness to his musical career ?

What does the author mean by and complex embodiment ?

What was attracted African American musicians to the Blues ?

What accounts for the success of men like Blind Lemon Jefferson among both Black and White audiences ?

What were Race Records ?

Why was this title used ?

What is the legacy of music from the early 20 century ?

Are there any connections between Jefferson story and the Blues and contemporary music today ?

206 Writing Prompt Research another Blues artist from the 19205 and their life and song lyrics to that of Blind Lemon Jefferson .