Blind Lemon Jefferson

One of the first recorded blues artists, Blind Lemon Jefferson was also one of the genre's most influential musicians. His dexterous, percussive guitar style, and haunting vocals set the standard for country blues artists. Were it not for the fact that his extant recordings from the 1920s are scratchy and low-fi, perhaps he and not Robert Johnson would be universally acclaimed as the paramount figure of early blues history.