📍Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX, USA
1920 – 1934“I was born Aaron Thibeaux Walker in Linden, Texas, in May 1910, and when I was a small boy my mother brought me to Dallas, where I grew up. My mother, Movelia, and my stepfather, Marco Washington, were both musicians; Marco played bass in the Dallas String Band and taught me the ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin, piano and guitar. Our house was always full of music, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, a family friend, sometimes came to dinner. When I was about ten, I became Blind Lemon's lead boy, leading him through the streets of Deep Ellum, the lively Black entertainment district along Elm Street near the railway tracks, from one beer joint to the next, while he played and sang and I collected the tips. Deep Ellum was full of pawnshops, bars, theatres and street musicians, and I soaked it all up, and Blind Lemon taught me the blues on the guitar in return. I left school at ten, and in my early teens I played banjo and danced in Dr. Breeding's travelling medicine show. By fifteen I was a professional, playing on the blues circuit, and my first record, in 1929, was credited to Oak Cliff T-Bone, after the part of Dallas where I lived and a twist on my middle name. In the 1930s I moved to Los Angeles, and I was one of the first to play the electric guitar in the blues, playing single-string solos with a jazz feeling. My song Call It Stormy Monday became a blues standard, and my playing inspired B.B. King, Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. Deep Ellum still remembers the boy who led Blind Lemon down Elm Street.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today