Dallas, TX
Blind Lemon Jefferson gets the spotlight in a trio of Dallas projects
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/J7TFEKHDSVCKFN26YELMYAFE6Y.jpg "Blind Lemon Jefferson gets the spotlight in a trio of Dallas projects")
A century before Drake, Adele and Olivia Rodrigo sang their sad songs, Blind Lemon Jefferson showed the world what depression and heartache were really all about.
The first male blues superstar — and arguably the most important musician ever to call Dallas home — Jefferson (1893-1929) was the undisputed “Father of the Texas Blues.”
With his strong, keening tenor voice and buoyant guitar playing, he inspired everyone from B.B. King to Bob Dylan, who both recorded his prophetic “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” His lament about poverty, “Match Box Blues,” evolved into “Matchbox,” a hit for Carl Perkins and a single by the Beatles.
Country guitar great Chet Atkins called him “one of my first finger-picking influences.” Even post-punk rockers paid tribute to him, with Nick Cave writing the eerie “Blind Lemon Jefferson” in his honor.
Yet for all his impact on music, Jefferson is largely forgotten today.
He’s a victim of poor recording technology that makes his crackly songs sound like relics of a bygone era. He’s a phantom, due to the scarcity of facts about his life. As far as anyone knows, Jefferson never gave an interview. Just one photo of him exists.
It’s hard to love a ghost. But Dallas writer-documentarian Alan Govenar and his collaborators hope to change that with a trio of projects that shed new light on the enigmatic singer-songwriter and guitarist.
- Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw runs through May 30 at the African American Museum in Fair Park and features 34 large-print color photos by Govenar, many of them taken around Jefferson’s hometown of Wortham, Texas. Phillip Collins curated the exhibit.
- The local nonprofit Deep Vellum Publishing recently issued See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, a new biography of Jefferson written by Govenar and Maryland-based ethnomusicologist Kip Lornell. Pieced together from decades of research by the authors and others, the biography also features all of the photos in Govenar’s exhibit.
- On Feb. 25, a revival of Lonesome Blues opens at Club Dada in Deep Ellum. A one-man musical starring J. Dontray Davis as Jefferson, directed by Akin Babatundé, it looks back at the singer’s life in the moments before he died at age 36. Lonesome Blues builds on Babatundé and Govenar’s earlier musical Blind Lemon Blues, which earned critical acclaim in Europe and New York City.
“Years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson told Akin and me that for him, ‘Blind Lemon Jefferson was the voice of Black America at that moment,’” Govenar says in an interview.
“Ultimately, Blind Lemon is a muse to the popular imagination. He’s larger than life. An icon.”
Blind at birth, the youngest of seven children, Lemon Henry “Blind Lemon” Jefferson grew up near Wortham, 80 miles southeast of Dallas, a rural area whose isolated beauty Govenar captures nicely in the photo exhibit.
As a teen, in the early 1910s, Jefferson began traveling regularly to Dallas, where he sang and played acoustic guitar for tips near present-day Deep Ellum. He was often accompanied by two protégés: Oak Cliff-raised T-Bone Walker and Louisiana-born Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who’d moved to Dallas around 1908, then left and returned a number of times.
“Blind Lemon and I run together for about 18 years around Dallas,” Lead Belly says in his 1947 recording, “Blind Lemon.”
While little is known about Jefferson’s Dallas days, Govenar and Lornell learned that he lived at a boarding house at 1803 S. Preston St., a road that no longer exists, near the present-day “Traveling Man” sculptures on Good-Latimer Expressway in Deep Ellum.
Jefferson was reportedly gregarious and very independent. But given the racism that pervaded Dallas in the 1920s, he was “vulnerable and no doubt extremely cautious about where he went to perform,” the authors write in See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.
“His virtuosic guitar styling and bellowing voice may have tempted whites on their way to and from work to stop, listen, and possibly flick a nickel or dime in his tin cup. But ultimately, he must have known that he needed to seek refuge in the African-American community of Old North Dallas or in his trek back to his rented room on South Preston.”
Like many Black Southerners before and after him, Jefferson traveled to Chicago for work. He recorded nearly 100 songs between 1925 and 1929 for Paramount Records, a label that had made Ma Rainey a star by the time Blind Lemon arrived.
At first, Jefferson mixed “the devil’s music” with spiritual lyrics in a string of religious songs he released under the pseudonym Deacon L.J. Bates. But the “Deacon” soon faded as Blind Lemon returned to the secular topics he knew best.
In March 1926, he recorded “Got The Blues” and “Long Lonesome Blues,” which both reportedly sold more than 100,000 copies — a word-of-mouth phenomenon in an era when many people didn’t own a radio and few stations played “race music.” Paramount released more than 40 songs by Jefferson in the coming years, with the combined sales estimated to be in the millions.
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“He was the biggest-selling male downhome blues musician of his generation. He was a superstar,” Govenar says. “At the height of his career, Blind Lemon reportedly owned two automobiles and had a chauffeur, a residence in Chicago, houses in Mexia and Dallas, and $1,500 in the bank at the time of his death. He defied all stereotypes.”
Another thing that set Lemon apart from his peers was the breadth of his songwriting.
He could temper his bleak mood with silliness, as in “Mosquito Moan.” Or he could dive headfirst into the horrors of humanity, as he does in “Hangman’s Blues,” a song discussed in both the biography and the photo exhibit.
Govenar says Jefferson probably wrote “Hangman’s Blues” about the mob killing of three Black men accused of raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in 1922 in Kirvin, Texas, near were the singer grew up. The song “not only alludes to the lynching, but it articulates the trauma of virulent racism that plagued African Americans nationwide,” he said.
In December 1929 — a year after “Hangman’s Blues” came out — Jefferson was dead, most likely of heart disease and exposure after he got lost in a heavy snowstorm in Chicago. He was just 36.
Today, his body lies in what’s now known as the Blind Lemon Jefferson Memorial Cemetery in Wortham. A marker quotes the lyrics from “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” but the exact location of his grave remains unknown — a fitting end, perhaps, for an artist whose entire life is shrouded in questions.
Who knows what Jefferson might have accomplished if he’d lived deep into the 20th century?
Would he have stayed in Chicago and teamed up with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters? Would he have followed T-Bone Walker to L.A. and traded his acoustic guitar for a Gibson electric? Or would he have returned to Dallas and lived long enough to mentor Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan?
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Davis, who portrays Blind Lemon in the Lonesome Blues musical, says questions like that don’t matter: The singer’s tale is compelling just the way it is.
“Playing Blind Lemon has been life-changing for me. Being able to tell this heartfelt story about a man who lived his life unapologetically, a man who pushed through all obstacles and proved determination and hard work pays off, is very liberating,” the Dallas actor says.
“Blind Lemon and I are from the same area and have a lot of similarities. I honestly feel like he is speaking to me, using me as a vessel to tell his story and encourage a new generation.”
Details
Lonesome Blues opens its run of weekend matinee shows on Sunday, Feb. 25, and continues through April 7 at Club Dada, 2720 Elm St., Dallas. For tickets, visit lonesomebluesmusical.com.
“Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw” runs through May 30 at the African American Museum in Fair Park. The museum is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free.
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean is available through online retailers or at deepvellum.org.
Dallas, TX
Like it or not, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is gaining ground for a contract extension from Jerry Jones
Late Sunday night in the Dallas Cowboys locker room, as players reveled in a 26-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, head coach Mike McCarthy was making his way through a jovial scene when he spotted Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones near an entrance. Earlier in the day, the two had shared a conversation steeped in disappointment when they’d learned the Cowboys had been eliminated from the playoffs by a Washington Commanders win. But now, as McCarthy approached Jerry, the tenor of the day had changed.
Jerry smiled. And when McCarthy held out his hand for a shake, the owner instead opened his arms and drew his head coach into a hug. He then took a few moments speaking to McCarthy, one hand on the coach’s shoulder and another gently tapping him in the chest with a fist. As the dialogue subsided, Jones patted McCarthy on the shoulder a few times and pumped his fist. All of this, perhaps not by coincidence, unfolded in front of a “Sunday Night Football” camera that was televising the emotional exchange to whatever portion of the Cowboys’ audience that was still watching.
If you were going to gauge what’s going on with the Cowboys’ head coach and the franchise’s owner right now, this was a worthwhile snippet of video for two reasons: First, it’s clearly something that Jerry — still keenly aware of optics and the power of theater — wanted people to see. Whether it was a public display of pride or affection that McCarthy had earned or Jones just wanted to staple an image to his words that night, he knew where the moment would go. In a word, everywhere. And the second reason the moment matters? Jerry knows it’s coming in the midst of a time when the primary conversation about McCarthy is one of his job status, a situation Jerry created when he chose to make his head coach go into the final year of his contract with no discernible public mandate on how an extension could be achieved.
Let’s be honest about this joyous but complicated embrace as it moves forward: both of these men created it. Jerry by letting McCarthy play out this string of games with no clarity on what could be next for the Cowboys’ coaching staff. And McCarthy by arguably saving his best coaching for the portion of the season when there was nothing more to clinch other than the dignity of not quitting.
Make no mistake, that’s what we saw unfold last night. McCarthy showcased a locker room that is still galvanized despite having lost a postseason aim. They gutted it out with a massive spate of injuries on the offensive line and backup quarterback in Cooper Rush, not to mention wideout CeeDee Lamb, who played through a painful shoulder issue Sunday. Join that with a shorthanded defense that battered a good Buccaneers offense and literally ripped a win away in the final moments of Sunday night, when cornerback DaRon Bland pulled a fumble from the belly of Tampa running back Rashaad White. It was a moment that encapsulated a number of big-play stands on both sides of the ball, definitively halting a game-winning drive that seemed very achievable for quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The resounding feeling? The Cowboys’ playoff hopes are dead, but the attitude toward the remaining schedule is anything but buried. Instead, a narrative about culture is unfurling — about whether there is actually some kind of underlying strength Dallas can display in the final weeks of the season that say something about this team and coach. Maybe it’s enough to fulfill the hopes of the franchise cornerstones, including Lamb, quarterback Dak Prescott and edge rusher Micah Parsons, who have all (in some fashion) endorsed a McCarthy return in 2025. Surely, Jerry has heard that message, leaving him to look for reasons to keep McCarthy that goes beyond the three straight 12-win seasons that preceded 2024.
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Afterward, Jerry was effusive in his praise of the effort in the win over the Buccaneers — making clear that it had stoked something emotional inside him.
“Those guys came out and played as though they were fighting in the championship game to go to the Super Bowl,” Jones said afterward. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of them and the coaching staff. It really shows me something.”
For his part, McCarthy tried to put a fine point on what that something was.
“I just think that [effort] shows you who they are,” McCarthy said. “I think everybody says the coach is always talking highly of the locker room — well, this is what I’m talking about. When I talk about, ‘It’s a great locker room,’ this is the definition of it. This is what a great locker room looks like. And it’s a mixture of men from all over the country, all over the world and different personalities. Obviously in circumstances [out of the playoffs] that we’ve discussed at length already. But when it came time to play, they played their asses off and I can’t tell you how proud I am.”
Of course, this peak of sorts — winning four of the last five games, getting to 7-8 with a chance at finishing the season at 9-8 — comes with measuring that goes beyond just a great locker room. There are fair questions to be asked about where this locker room culture was during a brutal five-game losing streak from mid-October to mid-November. It was an expanse that saw Dallas get obliterated in three of those games, against the Detroit Lions (a 47-9 loss), Philadelphia Eagles (34-6) and Houston Texans (34-10). And it wasn’t that long ago that Jerry was openly questioning some parts of the Dallas scheme, while also spiraling into sometimes odd postgame diatribes that lacked a cohesive connection to the here and now.
Those were the days of Bill Belichick possibly being the next Cowboys coach, and they weren’t that long ago. But times can also change quickly with Jerry. He rides Everest-ian highs after wins and Death Valley lows after losses. All of which typically result in McCarthy’s own roller coaster when it comes to his future employment.
Right now, the Cowboys are winning again — even if it’s too little and too late when it comes to the postseason. But as the victories have begun to stack onto the ledger and the support of vital players has ebbed into the public (and Jerry’s) consciousness, the disappointment has also started to soften where it matters. You hear it in Jerry’s words. You see it in the arms and embrace between an owner and head coach that seemed to be an intentional message to the fan base.
Things are changing. A 9-8 finish and the positive feedback of his players has Mike McCarthy pointed toward the one thing Jerry has avoided offering him thus far.
A contract extension.
The Dallas Cowboys are playing their third game in a row at home that is in front of a massive television audience as they are now going from Thanksgiving Day to Monday Night Football to Sunday Night Football. America’s Team and all that jazz. It is the first time that they will be playing a game in general though as a team eliminated from playoff contention.
This time around the Cowboys will be hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are underdogs even in their home building. While Dallas has won three of their last four, the Buccaneers have won all of their last four. Needless to say it is going to be a difficult outing.
We will see how well the Cowboys fare and if they are able to make it four out of five. The early parts of this season were extremely tough, but they have been playing very well for the last month or so.
This post will serve as our running recap throughout it all. We will update things on a quarterly basis and at the end of the game sort it so that it can be read in chronological order.
Let’s go Cowboys!
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Notable Recent News
This past week saw the trailer for the Netflix documentary chronicling Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys teams of the 1990s release… if you are into that.
Injury Updates
We have known for some time that Trevon Diggs’ season is over, but the Cowboys formally placed him on injured reserve on Saturday.
Dallas signed Andrew Booth to the active roster in response.
NFL News Relevant To The Cowboys
As noted up top… the Washington Commanders beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday and in the process they eliminated the Cowboys from playoff contention.
The Drought™ grows all the more large.
Up Next For The Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are set for their final road trip of the season next Sunday as they will visit the Philadelphia Eagles. After that they will return home to host the Washington Commanders before they wrap everything up.
DALLAS – Dallas Police have identified a man who was shot and killed before 5 a.m. Saturday morning.
Officers were called to a shooting in the 9000 block of Soverign Row, which is off of John Carpenter Freeway near Regal Row.
Investigators believe 21-year-old Joseph Ortega was shot by an unknown suspect.
Ortega died at the scene.
This is an ongoing investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Frank Serra at 214-662-4552 or frank.serra@dallaspolice.gov.
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