From KUTX:
This Week in Texas Music History is brought to you by Brane Audio.
On August 16, 1915, bluesman Melvin “Lil’ Son” Jackson was born in North Texas to two guitarist parents who raised him in the craft. His early recorded influences came from Texas Alexander, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Lonnie Johnson, but Jackson’s performing career began with gospel. In the Great Depression, he left his grandfather’s farm, where he’d been raised, and formed the spiritual group the Blue Eagle Four. Jackson served in Europe in WWII, and turned toward the blues upon his return to Dallas. In 1948, Jackson signed with Bill Quinn’s Gold Star Records of Houston, and that same year enjoyed a top 10 R&B single with “Freedom Train Blues.”
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Lil’ Son Jackson recorded a range of blues tracks for both Gold Star and Imperial Records of Los Angeles.
His style, even then, was a bit of a throwback, a lone storytelling guy with a guitar as opposed to the full band treatment then preferred in both Texas and West Coast rhythm and blues. His work in the period invites comparison to Lightnin’ Hopkins, another idiosyncratic solo artist from Texas who also worked with both Bill Quinn in Houston and West Coast labels.
A serious car accident in 1954 cut short this first phase of Jackson’s recording career.
Again like Lightnin’ Hopkins, though, it was the interest of California roots enthusiast Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records that brought Jackson back into the studio. In 1960, Jackson recorded his first album for Arhoolie, the self-titled Lil’ Son Jackson, followed by another for the Houston-based Ames label in 1963. Those classic roots albums would just about be it, though, as Jackson retired from performance and recording by the end of the 60s, leaving a strong legacy of storytelling blues behind.
