Blind Lemon Jefferson: Father of Texas Blues

Today is the birthday of Blind Lemon Jefferson. He would be 133 today.

Lemon Henry Jefferson was born near Coutchman, Texas, on Sept. 24, 1893. He was the youngest of seven children in an African American sharecropper family in Freestone County. He was born blind. He learned guitar as a teenager and began performing at church picnics and Saturday-night parties across the county. Then he found the street corners of East Texas. Then he found Deep Ellum in Dallas — and the corner of Elm Street and Central Tracks became his stage.

The Father of Texas Blues

Jefferson recorded 79 singles for Paramount Records between 1925 and 1929. He was the first commercially successful solo male blues artist in American history. “Matchbox Blues” and “Black Snake Moan” shaped a generation. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named “Matchbox Blues” one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. He taught T-Bone Walker the guitar. He inspired B.B. King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Bob Dylan. He died in Chicago on Dec. 19, 1929, at 36. His grave in Wortham carries the inscription from his own song: “See that my grave is kept clean.”

Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.