Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound

Foreword

foreword Paul Oliver Well, the Blues come to Texas, lopin’ like a mule, You take a high-brown woman, man, she’s hard to fool You can never tell what a woman’s got on her mind, Man, you can’t tell—what a woman’s got on her mind You might think she’s crazy ‘bout you, she’s leavin’ you all the time . . . Thesewords1 weresungbyBlindLemonJeffersonon the very first secular recording that he made, entitled “Got the Blues.” It was recorded in March 1926 and it was backed by “Long Lonesome Blues” when it was is‑ sued on Paramount 12354. Blind Lemon, who came from the rural region of Wortham, Texas, is considered to be the first male folk blues singer on record, and is regarded by many as being the finest of his time. This accolade, however, also goes to Charley Patton from the Mississippi Delta among some enthusiasts; he too was recorded by Paramount, but some three years later. There has been much writing on the Mississippi blues, and many enthusiasts would argue that blues emanated from the Delta—no, not the delta of the river, but a flat‑ land region in the north of the state.2 So when Jefferson sang in the opening couplet, “the blues came to Texas, lopin’ like a mule,” what did he mean? Did he mean that the blues as a music came rapidly to Texas from somewhere else, as rapidly and as disturbing as the loping mule? Or did he refer to the blues as a state of mind, of depression, or melan‑ choly—or of frustration, in this case? This we might assume from the second line, and the duplicity of the woman to whom he refers in the subsequent verses ap‑ pears to confirm it. But still the question remains: did the blues, as a song and music form, come to Texas from elsewhere, or did it originate there? Some collectors and writers on the blues argue that 1. Blind Lemon Jefferson, vocal with guitar, Chicago, March 1926. Got the Blues, Paramount 12354. 2. William Barlow, Looking Up at Down: The Emergence of Blues Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), pp. 26–55 and Robert Palmer, Deep Blues (New York: Viking, 1981). (top) blind lemon jefferson, Chicago, March 1928, “piney woods money mama,” Paramount 12650–A. (bottom) blind lemon jefferson, Chicago, June 1928,“low down mojo blues,” Paramount 12680–b. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01FRONT MATTER.indd 7 7/8/08 10:23:51 AM its origins lie in Mississippi and that it filtered, or was brought by migrant workers, to Texas. The couplet song termed “Dink Blues” is regarded as having been heard sung by a woman who came with a “boatload of women” to Texas in 1899 from Memphis, Tennessee,3 the infer‑ ence being that she brought the song with her. But she was brought to join workers in a Texas levee camp and she may have well picked up the song in Texas. ArcheologistCharlesPeabody,excavatingintheDel‑ ta in 1901,4 noted the songs of his Clarksdale workmen, including a few blues verses, four years before Howard Odum collected some there.5 These were the earliest to be gathered in Mississippi, whereas blues verses were heard in Texas in the late nineteenth century. W. H. Thomas, an early president of the Texas Folklore So‑ ciety, noted the years in which he collected them. One song was “Jack O’ Diamonds,” which was later recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson. Another was an early “Rail‑ road Blues.” I got the blues, but I haven’t got the fare I got the blues, but I haven’t got the fare, I got the blues, but I’m too damned mean to cry. Oh, where was you when the rollin’ mill burned down? On the levee camp about fifteen miles from town6 3. John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs (New York: MacMillan, 1934), p. 193. 4. Charles Peabody, “Notes on Negro Music,” Journal of American Folklore (1903), No. 16, pp. 145–52. 5. Barlow, p. 47. Gates Thomas, the brother of William Thomas, also collected proto-blues in those early years, several of a couplet and refrain line form, the first being heard in 1886. The old hen cackle, she cackle in the corn The next time she cackle, she cackle in the barn. Well, the old hen cackle, she sholy gwain to lay7 The last that he noted was collected in 1906, which was a sixteen-verse blues on...