Dallas

The street corners of Deep Ellum

At the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue, Blind Lemon Jefferson played guitar and sang for passers-by. He was born near Wortham, Texas, and performed regularly in Dallas’s Deep Ellum area; the Texas State Historical Association cautions that there is no evidence he actually lived in the city.

Deep Ellum had cafés, domino parlours and music on the streets. Jefferson met Huddie Ledbetter, later known as Lead Belly, in Dallas. A recording scout took Jefferson to Chicago, and his records began reaching a national audience in 1926.

One of his songs, “Match Box Blues”, returns to the image of a traveller wondering whether a matchbox could hold his clothes. Jefferson recorded multiple versions in 1927. In an essay published by the Library of Congress, writer Jas Obrecht suggests that the image was likely inspired by an earlier Ma Rainey recording. His journey from a Dallas street corner to records heard across the country was itself a long one.