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The Scarlet Thread Exodus 35:35
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Custom Jewelry UNIQUE DESIGNS • Bracelets • Necklaces • Earrings Email: Scarletthread3535@msn.com 5067 Hwy. 259 N. • Longview, TX 75605
Heather Lawrence 903-663-4110
(Inside Leslie’s Outdoor Power, 3 Miles from Loop 281 on Left)
Full Service Jewelry Store Free Jewelry Cleaning Watch batteries $4 Loose Diamonds – Colored Stones
We buy Estate Jewelry, Coins, Watches and Antiques
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119 S. Main Street • Gladewater
903-845-2700 Owners – Julian & Ginger Graf
Where you can Expect the Unexpected ... from quality to prices!!!
Live Music 2nd Saturdays June 11 – Bill White July 9 – Dale Cummings August 13 – Matt Tolentino September 10 – Clearly Vocal
8QFOH -RKQ·V &RIIHHKRXVH Join us for coffee, dessert, and great music! J.O.Y Hall, 1st United Methodist Church 406 E. Lane St. • Quitman 903-763-4127 Tickets available at the door or church office. Doors open at 6:30 • Show starts at 7:00 Admission $7/adults • $5/students
Page 20 - June 2011
I am not a musician. I can’t play a lick of anything and I sure can’t sing, but I love music. My first memories of music are from Bruton Road Baptist Church in the Pleasant Grove area of southeast Dallas. Songs such as “Amazing Grace”, “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, “Love Lifted Me” and “How Great Thou Art” are forever entrenched in my memory. As I have grown through the teenage, young adult, middle age and soon to be senior citizen eras of my life, my musical tastes have changed. But my roots go back to 1950’s with early rock ‘n roll and the soul music that turned to blues. The African-American East Texas Blues experience has left a profound effect on the world of music and on those of us who have become immersed in it. I love the Mississippi Delta Blues, which some say is at the root of all other blues. The Delta Blues sound found its way through the cotton fields, farms, oil fields and lumber camps of East Texas. I once took a journey to Clarksdale, Mississippi with long time friend Wild Bill Sanderson. Bill is a writer and was doing research on the blues, so I went with him. We made the trip to the legendary Crossroads, at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49, where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play the blues guitar. There I became captured by the spirit of the blues. East Texas contributions to the world of blues came from many sources, and I know of a few. Most historians trace the Texas version of the genre to Blind Lemmon Jefferson who was the first recorded artist in the field. Jefferson is known as the “Father of Texas Blues” and is revered by many of today’s blues artists. His recordings were said to have influenced B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House and boogie rockers Canned Heat. In 1920, Blind Lemmon Jefferson is recorded as living in Freestone County between Wortham and Streetman. He was a street musician who played in East Texas towns at barber shops and on street corners. Jefferson frequented Dallas and was a prominent force behind the development of Deep Ellum, a place where he met the young Aaron Thibeaux Walker who was to be known as T-Bone Walker. Walker would become the eyes of Jefferson in Dallas, and collected his tips for him as he performed on corners and in bars. In return, Jefferson taught Walker the blues guitar. Jefferson died in Chicago in December of 1929. Legend says he died from freezing after suffering a heart attack. It has also been claimed in Frank X. Tolbert’s column, “Tolbert’s Texas”, in the Dallas Morning News that he was killed carrying a large amount of royalty money while trying to catch a train home to Texas. Paramount Records paid to have his body returned to Texas where he was buried in Wortham Cemetery. His grave was left unmarked until 1967. In 2007, the cemetery was named Blind Lemmon Memorial Cemetery. Walker was born in Linden, Cass County. He was one of the first to record blues standard “Call it Stormy Monday” in the late 1940’s. He once recorded under the name Oak Cliff
by Larry Tucker T-Bone in the late 1920‘s. Linden honors Walker with the annual T-Bone Walker Blues Fest, and it is coming up this month, June 17-18, at Music City Texas, one of the southwest’s premier sites for live music. This year the lineup includes Honeyboy Edwards, Omar Shariff, Robin and The Bluebirds and a favorite of mine, the Ezra Charles Band. That is just a few of the bands who will play on two stages. It is a must attend affair for any blues lover that can get to Linden. The roots of the African-American musical influence go very deep in East Texas. Mance Lipscomb was born in Navasota, but his real name was Berau De Glen Lipscomb. “Mance” was short for emancipation. He played in and around the Brenham area and spent most of his life as a tenant farmer before being “discovered” by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960 during the Country Blues Revival. In 1963, Lipscomb appeared at the Monterey Folk Festival in California with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary. He died in 1979 in Navasota after having a late, but successful career. Then there is gospel great Willie Neal Johnson. Known as “Country Boy,” he was born and raised in Tyler. He was a member of the early Five Ways of Joy Gospel Singers formed by Rev. C.W. Jackson. He later formed his famous Willie Neal Johnson and the Gospel Keynotes. The gospel master recorded the 1980 Grammy nominated “Ain’t Stoppin’ Us Now.” The group was inducted to the Gospel Hall of Fame in Detroit and the American Gospel Quartet Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Alabama. Johnson died of a stroke January 10, 1991 at the age of 65 in Tyler. There are others with Texas connections that we could tell you about: Albert Collins, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Big Mama Thornton, Blind Willie Johnson and even Johnny Guitar Watson, but I will leave that for you to discover. The African-American influence on today’s Texas music and its place in history are vital and should be revered today and in the future. These pioneers paved the way for Johnny and Edgar Winter, Bugs Henderson, ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughn and the remarkable Wes Jeans from Marshall. I feel I have been blessed to just be able to listen to these masters. It’s all about being Homegrown. Until next time, keep Texas Music in your heart and Texas Blues in your soul.
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