Texas Blues

Texas Blues is a subgenre of the blues, and of course is not limited to Texas-based musicians. It has had various style variations but typically has been played with more swing than other blues styles.

Texas blues differs from styles such as Chicago blues in use of instruments and sounds, especially the heavy use of the guitar. Musicians such as Stevie Ray Vaughan contributed by using various types of guitar sounds like southern slide guitar and different melodies of blues and jazz. Texas blues also relies on guitar solos or "licks" as bridges in songs.

Texas Blues began to appear in the early 1900s among African Americans who worked in oilfields, ranches and lumber camps. In the 1920s, Blind Lemon Jefferson innovated the style by using jazz-like improvisation and single string accompaniment on a guitar; Jefferson's influence defined the field and inspired later performers, like Lightnin' Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, many bluesmen moved to cities like Galveston, Houston and Dallas. It was from these cities that a new wave of popular performers appeared, including slide guitarist and gospel singer Blind Willie Johnson and legendary vocalist Big Mama Thornton. Duke Records and Peacock Records were the most important labels of the scene.

In the 1960s, however, the record industry moved north, reducing Texas's importance in the blues scene. The area's importance returned in the 1970s when a Texas blues rock sound developed, led by ZZ Top and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. This set the stage for the revival of the 1980s, which produced Stevie Ray Vaughan and moved the blues capital of the state to Austin.

Blind Lemon Jefferson was recognized primarily as street singer who performed daily with a tin cup in the burgeoning music hotbed of Deep Ellum, in Dallas. Despite his limited commercial success in Dallas, he had a great influence on the development of Texas blues. Huddie (Leadbelly) Ledbetter, another early bluesman, credited him as an inspiration, as did Aaron Thibeaux (T-Bone) Walker. Jefferson’s guitar style was unique, and established the basis of what is today known as the Texas style. He strummed or "hammered" the strings accentuating the bass notes percussively, and picked single-string, single note runs. T-Bone Walker later applied this technique to the electric guitar and, combined with the influences of the jump and swing blues jazz bands, created a new Texas blues.

In the 1970s, Austin entrepreneur and blues aficionado Clifford Antone opened his club, and opened a new generation’s eyes to the legacy of the masters of the blues. Antone’s showcased the living legends, and developed the new wave of Texas blues players, including a young Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Since the 1980s, there has been a resurgence of interest in the blues among a certain part of the African-American population, particularly around Jackson, MS and other deep South regions. Often termed "soul blues" or "Southern Soul," the music at the heart of this movement was given new life by the unexpected success of two particular recordings on the Jackson-based Malaco label: Z. Z. Hill's Down Home Blues (1982) and Little Milton's The Blues is Alright (1984). Contemporary African-American performers who work this vein of the blues include Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Sir Charles Jones, Bettye LaVette, Marvin Sease, Peggy Scott-Adams, Billy "Soul" Bonds, T.K. Soul, Mel Waiters, and Willie Clayton. The American Blues Radio Network, founded by Rip Daniels, a black Mississippian, features soul blues on its playlists and radio personalities such as Duane "DDT" Tanner and Nikki deMarks.

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Since the 1980s, blues has also continued in both traditional and new forms. The Texas rock-blues style emerged which used guitars in both solo and rhythm roles. In contrast with the West Side blues, the Texas style is strongly influenced by the British rock-blues movement. Major artists of the Texas style are Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and ZZ Top. In 1982, the album Strong Persuader revealed Robert Cray as a major blues artist. 1989 saw a revival of John Lee Hooker's popularity with the album The Healer. Eric Clapton, known for his performances with the Blues Breakers and Cream, made a comeback in the 1990s with his album Unplugged, in which he played some standard blues numbers on acoustic guitar.

In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and^[39] more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged.^[40]

In the 1990s, blues performers explored a range of musical genres, as can be seen, for example, from the broad array of nominees of the yearly Blues Music Awards, previously named W. C. Handy Awards^[41] or of the Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary and Traditional Blues Album. Contemporary blues music is nurtured by several blues labels such as: Alligator Records, Blind Pig Records, Ruf Records, Chess Records (MCA), Delmark Records, Delta Groove Music, NorthernBlues Music, and Vanguard Records (Artemis Records). Some labels are famous for their rediscovering and remastering of blues rarities such as Arhoolie Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (heir of Folkways Records), Yazoo Records (Shanachie Records) and Document Records.^[42]

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Young blues artists today are exploring all aspects of the blues, from classic delta to more rock-oriented blues, artists born after 1970 like Sean Costello, Shemekia Copeland, Jonny Lang, Corey Harris, John Mayer, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, North Mississippi Allstars, and The Black Keys developing their own styles.