Comparing Lemon Jefferson And Lemon Jefferson's Blues

Blues music grew up in the Mississippi Delta and more often than not, started directly in the fields. Blues music started as a way for slaves to express their emotions with each other. It was common for slaves to talk to each other in a rhythmic style so they were the only ones that could understand. For example, the slaves might sing to each other about the location of their boss. This was the common style of Blues Music for quite some time until Blind Lemon Jefferson rose to stardom. Lemon Jefferson was instrumental in the progression of country blues. His free-flowing style revolutionized Blues Music. Lemon Jefferson was considered by many to be the founder of Texas Blues. Jefferson was the spark that gave African American men a chance at

Typically, women were the only real successful blues performers. Jefferson’s style of music was also different than what people were used to at the time. Until Jefferson came along, there was a much more rigid style of Blues. However, this started to change into a free-flowing scheme. Many of his songs, specifically the vocals, did not always align with the three-line stanzas. He broke free of the twelve-bar blues and created an all new form. His music sounded like it all flowed continuously. In the textbook American Music: A Panorama, the author reveals that Jefferson turned “instead to a more fluid, even rhapsodic style, singing as the mood strikes them” (Candelaria 109). This new style of music was seen on the big stage for the first time in

Thus, Jefferson was brought to Chicago. However, for some reason Lemon Jefferson recorded some of these songs under false names. He decided to go by the names Deacon L.J. Bates and Elder J.C. Brown. The Blues became the defining black sound and it was Blind Lemon Jefferson that was the frontrunner of this image. The video “Folk America ep01 Birth of a Nation” talks about Jefferson’s style of music as something that had never been seen before. His voice was referred to as a street corners voice and his guitar style was very free rolling. Many Blues Musicians tried to imitate his form but nobody could do it quite like him. His first recordings were gospels and his descendants became preachers and musicians. In the same video, one of his descendants Reverend Curtis Jefferson reveals that many believed the Blues to be the Devil’s music. He argues that Jefferson was simply telling his story and spoke “his soul through his guitar”. The Justification for Jefferson playing secular music was that the actual words being sung did not matter as much as where the heart