Texans, of course, aren’t alone in playing that way but it’s
notable that exceptions to this rule were so rare. Before look-
ing for other regional similarities among these artists, the role
of the guitar in the blues – and, for that matter, in Texas –
must be considered. It seems ironic that the instruments most
prominently identified with blues soloists – piano, harmonica,
and guitar – were all of European origin, while the African-
American banjo played little role in the music and quickly fell
into disfavor as the popularity of the blues spread. The rise of
this genre appears to have been simultaneous with the wide-
spread dissemination of mass-produced guitars in late nine-
teenth century America.
However, guitars were no strangers in Texas, a state with
a long-standing Hispanic history. We don’t know what ex-
change (if any) existed between guitar-playing Hispanics and
the African-American populace of Texas. When the new sound
of the blues and the newly-available guitar came together,
did Texans have an edge earned from familiarity with the in-
strument? It’s tempting to speculate, but in truth we don’t
know.
What we do know is that a remarkably diverse group of
Texas blues singer-guitarists etched their legacy onto 78s in
the pre-Depression ‘golden age’ of country blues. For the most
part, little is known of these men though some are figures of
legend, and for good reason. Blind Lemon Jefferson (ca. 1897-
1929) wove rhythmically complex and stunningly inventive
conversations between his voice and guitar. The success of
his 1926 recording, “Long Lonesome Blues,” is said to have
sparked the commercial recording industry’s interest in coun-
try blues. Blind Willie Johnson (ca.1902 – ca.1947), a fero-
cious sacred singer with a stylistic kinship to blues, was a
bottleneck guitarist nonpareil. Henry ‘Ragtime’ Thomas (1874-
1930) played a simple strumming style which fit his innocently
ebullient music. All these men were Texans and none sounded
the least bit like the other. The state is vast and so were op-
portunities to develop regional and individual ‘voices’ in an
era when the influence of records on repertoire and style was
nascent.
Two decades after Jefferson’s recording debut, Texans con-
tinued to be in the vanguard of guitar-centered blues. T-Bone
Walker (1910-1975) single-handedly invented a jazz-tinged
blues vocabulary for electric guitar, one which revolutionized
the way a generation of players approached both the genre
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