Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton

Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton (born January 26, 1989)[1] is an American musician from Los Angeles. A vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Paxton's style draws from blues and jazz music before World War II and was influenced by Fats Waller and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson. According to Will Friedwald in The Wall Street Journal, Paxton is "virtually the only music-maker of his generation — playing guitar, banjo, piano and violin, among other implements — to fully assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and '30s, the blues of Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson."[2]

Background

Originally from the Watts district of Los Angeles, Paxton's grandparents moved from Louisiana to California in 1956.[3] These southern roots would have an influence on Paxton as a young boy. After spending time listening to his hometown blues radio station, as well as the old Cajun and country blues songs his grandmother used to sing, Paxton became interested in these early sounds, developing a breadth of knowledge pertaining to such music along the way. He began playing the fiddle when he was twelve, only to pick up the banjo two years later. As a teenager, he began to go blind, losing most of his eyesight by the age of 16. Since his childhood, he has added piano, harmonica, Cajun accordion, ukulele, guitar, and the bones to his musical arsenal, although the banjo was his first serious instrument.[4] In addition to blues and jazz, he uses these instruments to play ragtime, country blues, and Cajun music. He is Jewish.[5] He graduated from Verbum Dei High School in 2007.[6] As a Verbum Dei student, he had a corporate work-study assignment at the Braille Institute of America.[7]

In 2007, Paxton moved to upstate New York to attend Marist College[7][8] and soon after began playing gigs in and around the Brooklyn area. Although not signed to a record label, he continues to play old-time, blues, and roots festivals throughout the United States,[9] as well as various shows opening for old-time string bands including The Dust Busters.

Paxton's talent and contributions to acoustic blues have earned him comparisons to contemporary artists such as Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', and Corey Harris.[10] Similar to groups such as the Carolina Chocolate Drops, he is one of the few contemporary African-American banjo players touring today.

Paxton was named Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Workshop and Festival in 2014 by Centrum in Port Townsend, Washington. He succeeded musicians Daryl Davis, Corey Harris and Phil Wiggins in the role.

Living Blues magazine placed Paxton on the cover of their issue entitled "The Next Generation of the Acoustic Blues," in December 2012.[10]

In 2014, he voiced and sang the lines of "The Highwayman", a character from the fourth episode of Over the Garden Wall, "Songs of the Dark Lantern."

In 2017, Paxton appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, recording Blind Gary Davis's “Candy Man” on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[11]

References
  1. Newton, Steve (January 24, 2014). "Digging for the real facts about Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton". The Georgia Straight. Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corporation. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  2. Friedwald, Will (November 19, 2012). "Blind Boys and the Bluest of Notes". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  3. Panepinto, Peter (July 11, 2011). "Musician Blind Boy Paxton Shares Love of Song With Others at Roots Music and Arts Festival". Carroll County Times. Landmark Communications. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  4. Raliff, Ben (July 21, 2010). "Tunes That Are Steeped in an Old-School Style". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  5. Weichselbaum, Lehman (August 11, 2015). "The Bluesman With The Yarmulke". The New York Jewish Week. The Jewish Week Media Group.
  6. "An Old Soul in a Young Musician's Body". Verbum Dei High School. 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  7. "Rocky Roads to Rhodes Scholar" (PDF). The Crusader. Mount Carmel Alumni Foundation. February 2017. pp. 1–2. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  8. ""BLIND BOY" PAXTON • BLUES". Robbie Collomore Concerts. 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  9. "Blind Boy Paxton with Brandon Bailey". Champaign-Urbana Folk & Roots Festival. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  10. "Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton". The Country Blues. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  11. Hautzinger, Daniel (June 6, 2017). "The Performers in 'The American Epic Sessions'". WTTW. Window to the World Communications. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
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