I just wanted to mention some more of the great artists from Texas that help highlight The Blues as one of the most authentic of all Genre.

Samuel John “Lightnin” Hopkins was born in Buffalo, Texas on March 15, 1912 and died on January 30, 1982 in Houston at age 69. A very influential talent on guitar. If you are able to listen to any of the clips, this first and the last one are not to be missed.

Connie Curtis “Pee Wee” Crayton, born December 18, 1914 in Rockdale Texas and died in June 25, 1985 in LA. He would take up the guitar quite late, he had success as a Band Leader after his move to California at age 21. He was a follower of the T-Bone Walker style. He recorded for Modern Records, from 1947 to 1951, it was run by the four Bihari brothers who notoriously took undeserved song credits and royalties from B.B. King and all of their recording artists. He was given a guitar by Leo Fender himself and is the first Blues musician to play the Fender Stratocaster.

Victoria Spivey was born in Houston in 1906 and died in New York on October 3, 1976. She played in the family String Band and at age 12 she was hired to sing along with silent films. She had a long career that included playing piano, acting in films and starting her own Record Label, Spivey Records. She often sang with New Orleans Blues Guitar great, Lonnie Johnson, who as it turns out was an influence on T-Bone Walker.

Bessie Tucker is thought to have been born in Rusker, Texas in 1906, she died in Dallas in 1933. Very little is known about her but it appears she wrote her own songs and recorded sessions in Memphis (1927) and Dallas (1929).

Alger “Texas” Alexander was born in 1900 in Jewett, Texas and died in Richards, Texas in 1954. He had a unique singing style and one of the few Blues artists that did not play a musical instrument. He sometimes sang along with Blind Lemon Jefferson.

ZZ Top were formed in Houston in 1969, they are one of the foremost Blues Rock bands in the history of the genre. They have released 15 albums and sold more that 50 million records. Billy Gibbons is ranked #102 on Rolling Stone Magazines 250 Greatest list.

Stephen Ray Vaughan, to most SRV is all that’s required. He was born October 3, 1954 in Dallas Texas and tragically died at age 35 with four others August 27, 1990 in a Helicopter crash after leaving from a concert. He was a fine singer, songwriter and ranked at #20 on the list of the 250 Greatest Guitar Players and the fifth highest from the Blues genre. While he was a student of those who came before him he had his own innovative style.

I counted an impressive 14 Texas guitar players on the Rolling Stone 250 Greatest list, eight of them are Blues artists. There are many more names that I won’t feature such as Blind Wille Johnson, Buster Pickens and Jimmy Rushton. As to Ida May Black and Joe Williams (not ‘Big’ Joe) they are names I ran across but can find almost nothing about them. So that’s it for Texas, look for a post on West Coast Blues that includes some of the names I have covered here.

Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker was born in Linden, Texas May 28, 1910, he died in in Los Angeles on March 16, 1975, he was 64. As a child he learned from his mother Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, but primarily his stepfather, Marco Washington (Dallas String Band) how to play the ukulele, banjo, mandolin, guitar, violin and piano. I mentioned his name in the post on Blind Lemon Jefferson as Walker was his protégé. At age 15 he was a full time musician and helped Jefferson getting to gigs.

I found reference to Walker involved in a recording in 1927, when he was 17 but it would at age 19 when he made his first recording as a lead guitarist and singer. “Wichita Falls Blues” and “Trinity River Blues” on Columbia in 1929. He used the name Oak Cliff T-Bone. He then made the move to LA. This is were we have his influence on the West Coast Blues sound as well. He went on to have a successful and prolific career. The (above clip on the) song “Call It Stormy Monday but Tuesday Is Just as Bad” has been recorded over 200 times, often shortened to “Stormy Monday”.

He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He is ranked quite low in my opinion at #65 on the recent The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list. Why do I think he should be ranked higher?

Here are just a few of the reasons, B.B. King who is ranked #8 on the list is quoted from his autobiography “Jesus Himself had returned to earth playing electric guitar. T-Bone’s blues filled my insides with joy and good feeling. I became his disciple. And remain so today. My biggest musical debt is to T-Bone.”. He taught Steve Miller how to play guitar behind his back and with his teeth, and inspired Jimi Hendrix to do the same.

The Sun Records bio on Walker says “Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer”. and “He was the idiom’s first true lead guitarist, and undeniably one of its very best.” I can quote several other reputable sources with similar accolades.

He along with Sister Rosetta Tharpe (ranked #6) were two of the first, with the forgotten Eddie Durham and Charlie Christian, who were also from Texas to create the sound of the Blues on Electric Guitar. Other ‘Blues’ names would follow such as fellow Texan Freddie King ranked #19 who took the Texas Blues to Chicago as a teenager. Another Texas legend (SVR), Stephen Ray Vaughan (#20). Then there is as noted, BB King (#8), followed by Robert Johnson (#16) and Albert King (#22), John Lee Hooker (#52) and Muddy Waters (#84) all from the Delta. Remarkable artists one and all.

I could go on with more on T-Bone but I would like to leave you with some thoughts. No question Robert Johnson (who played acoustic guitar) left us some remarkable records from 1936-7. He, as we know died in 1938, but his influence really begins in 1961 with the US release of Robert Johnson – King of the Delta Blues album. It was 1966 in the UK but acolyte Eric Clapton had already heard an import record by then.

Before Johnson made his recordings, Walker had been pioneering electrified blues guitar in the mid 1930’s. I don’t think it’s a competition, but in the evolution of the Blues on guitar, Walker and others who transitioned from acoustic to electric were the ones making it all happen. This is long before Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and so on.

Bottom line, I’ve long thought he deserves much greater recognition.

Lemon Henry Jefferson is believed to have been born on September 24, 1893 and died December 19, 1929. He was the son of Sharecroppers who lived near Coutchman, Texas. By all accounts he was born blind. He had learned the guitar late for those times, but took to it and was able to get by as a Street Musician. Around 1910 he travelled to the Deep Ellum entertainment neighborhood of Dallas where he crossed paths with some other legendary Bluesman, Texas native T-Bone Walker and Lead Belly from Louisiana.

He would record in Chicago for Paramount Records. Not unusual for this time his songs were full of strong sexual innuendo, but his first recordings were actually Gospel Songs. His songs were popular enough but his style was quite unique so his immediate influence seems to have been limited. He was hard to copy. However, both Lead Belly and Lightnin’ Hopkins biographers cite his significance. B.B. King is quoted as saying Lemon was a great influence on his playing style. Lemon has been dubbed The Father of The Texas Blues.

The accounts of his death in December of 1929 at age 36 seem to vary. It appears most likely he was lost in a blizzard (Chicago in December) and died of a heart attack.

Where his influence seems to have had great effect is some twenty or more years after his death. We see his presence in Rock and Roll, Folk and Country. Many musicians were listening to his records. I have a couple of examples where the line between being influenced and plagiarizing has been crossed.

I have a couple of examples that involve Jefferson.

This first song has a history that predates Blind Lemon Jefferson by a few years, the back story there will have to come at another time. However it is his recording of the song that’s been connected to this controversy. Though he is not the writer of the lyrics in question, he inserted them in a song he did author.

It is the second verse of the song that will sound familiar as you have heard those words before, from someone else. You can just scroll down and skip the suspense if you like but the song is pretty great.

Jimmy Gilmore’s clip above includes that verse from “Matchbox” in “Black Snake Moan”.

The next example comes from the Blind Lemon song “Broke and Hungry” recorded in 1926 and released in 1927. It is primarily the one verse in question so I compared his original with two of the several versions that followed.

Dylan “Ragged & Dirty”(1993)	Willie Brown (1942) via John Estes (1929) “Ragged And Dirty (Broke & Hungry)”	Blind Lemon (1926) “Broke and Hungry”
Lord I’m broke, I’m hungry, ragged and dirty too Broke and hungry, ragged and dirty too If I clean up sweet mama, can I stay all night with you	Now, I’m broke and I’m hearted, I’m ragged and I’m dirty, too Now I’m broken-hearted, ragged and I’m dirty, too And if I clean up, pretty mama, may I stay all night with you?	I’m broke and hungry, ragged and dirty too I said I’m broke and hungry, ragged and dirty too Mama, if I clean up, can I go home with you?

Jefferson is not credited in any version of this song other than his own. Dylan sites Willie Brown as his influence however the song credits list Dylan/Traditional.

Having studied this area for many years I can say that I am aware that many of the Blues songs in particular are listed as ‘Traditional’ as we don’t know who wrote it. We often know who first recorded a song but we can trace the lyrics and or melody to an earlier folk tune for example. “House of the Rising Sun” would be one of those songs. It’s hard for someone to just take credit for that song.

Blues, perhaps more than most genre was developed on oral history. Songs, lyrics, guitar licks and more were shared and changed or re-worked in some way. However there is a long standing precedent that if a songwriter is known and you use lyric’s and or melody, they must be credited. In some cases this may be in name only, others there is a case for royalties.

There is very little evidence that the second of the two songs ever existed before Blind Lemon recorded it and he his credited for his version only. While there are differences in the songs, I say that there is enough evidence for a shared writing credit.

I will remind you of a couple examples with Chuck Berry Songs. The Beatles were sued and settled out of court over “Come Together”, as Lennon used “here come old flat-top” and melodic elements from Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”. Not enough for a song writing credit but there was an ‘arrangement’ made.

The Beach Boys “Surfin’ U.S.A.” is perhaps a bit more egregious as Brian Wilson’s song bore a striking resemblance to Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”. Enough so that song credits now read Chuck Berry/Brian Wilson and royalties were paid in this case.

Got off on a bit of tangent there but I think there is some injustice to Blind Lemon Jefferson. On to some more names in Texas Blues in my next post.