Lil Son Jackson Volume 1

DOCD-5680 Lil Son Jackson – Volume 1 ‘Rockin’ and Rollin’ – (1948 – 1950) Lil Son Jackson, vocal, guitar. Genres: Blues, Country Blues, Country Blues Guitar, Texas Country Blues. Informative booklet notes by Gary Atkinson. Detailed discography.

In 1948 Lil’ Son Jackson took the 250-mile trip south to Houston where he was persuaded to cut an acetate demo for the Gold Star record company. In the final two years of the decade new releases by solo bluesman was already becoming a minority. There were still some strong “country blues” artists, including another Texas bluesman, Lightin’ Hopkins, who were having significant hits on labels such as Regal based in New Jersey and Gotham which were still putting out records in the “rural blues genre”.

Gold Star’s owner, Bill Quinn, liked what he heard on the demo and decided, perhaps with Hopkins success in mind, to record and release four titles by Jackson giving him the recording name of “Little Son” Jackson.

His first four sides to be released; Roberta Blues / Freedom Blues and Ground Hog Blues / Bad Whiskey-Bad Women were good, honest Texas “Country” blues. “Roberta” and “Whiskey” featured driving single beat bass rhythms typical of other Texas guitarists such as Lead Belly and Mance Lipscomb. The rhythm coupled with single repeated notes highlighting Jackson’s cool, clear vocals all with some nice guitar licks added up to some fine performances. If the rural blues were going to be recorded and released as a commercial propositions as 1950 approached then they would have to be good. These were excellent and proved to be instant hits.