Blind Lemon Jefferson
It was Blind Lemon Jefferson’s style of playing country blues that displaced “Ma” Rainey and other females blues singers from the top of the blues world, both at Paramount and with the other recording companies. In 1925, soon after arriving from Texas at Paramount’s studios, Jefferson would become the company’s bestselling artist, opening the door for other Black men with guitars and songs from the South.
Thanks to the Paramount recordings, Jefferson’s music and fame spread throughout the South. From being an itinerant musician riding the trains from job to job in Texas, Jefferson’s new finances kept money in his pockets. He now bought his own car, plus hired a chauffeur to take him from engagement to engagement.
Yet by 1928, something had happened to Blind Lemon’s music. Most of his inspired blues had been recorded in the first half of his Paramount career. After that a certain dullness and sameness began to take over his recordings. Had he simply run out of his best materiel? Were the Paramount executives pushing him to record songs that they thought would sell? Was the bluesman’s hard life on the road finally taking its toll?
All that Paramount knew about Jefferson’s professional decline was that the sales of his new 78s were diminishing. And it was perhaps as a result that Paramount decided to give Jefferson’s career a bit of a boost by issuing “Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Birthday Record”. Whether anyone at Paramount knew Jefferson’s real birth date was beside the point.
Like its two predecessors, it is clear that real care was put into the artwork for this label. What jumps out is the bold lemon-yellow background color. No surprise there! Again the lettering is elaborate. One suspects that the design work that was used on the Rev. Hanes 78, was partially repurposed for the Jefferson label, to great effect. As to who did the art work for any of the portrait labels we don’t know. Probably such artwork was contracted out to a firm in Chicago or in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where Paramount had its business offices.
We are lucky that many photographs exist of “Ma” Rainey. Not so with Blind Lemon Jefferson. There is only one. Paramount usually sent its more popular blues recording artists to a local photography studio for a formal portrait. Often those portraits are the only photographs we have of many great blues artists. So it was with Jefferson. It was a cropping of that photo that was placed at the top of the label.
The two songs on the “Birthday Record” are Piney Woods Mama and Long Lastin’ Lovin’. Both are believed to have been recorded in March, 1928.
Jefferson’s recording career would continue until September, 1929. A month later the Stock Market crashed. Then in December, Blind Lemon Jefferson was found dead on a frozen Chicago street, the victim of a snowstorm or a weakened heart—or more likely, both. It was a double whammy from which Paramount would never recover. Soon its advertising budget would be slashed to nothing. Instead of pressing 78s in the thousands, it pressed in the hundreds. In 1932 Paramount shut its doors for good.
As to Blind Lemon’s birthdate, it is believed to be September 24, 1893.
DISCOGRAPHY:
Piney Woods Money Mama
Paramount 12650
Chicago, c. March, 1928
Low Down Mojo Blues
Paramount 12650
Chicago, c. June, 1928
The following ephemera is from the Bowman collection: Blind Lemon Jefferson record and sleeve; and two Jefferson record listings.
