John Jackson

John Jackson, gravedigger and guitarist: born Woodville, Virginia 25 February 1924; married (three sons, one daughter); died Fairfax, Virginia 20 January 2002.

John Jackson was not a blues singer in the classic mould. He was a true folk blues artist, whose gentle way with a song, and general approach to his repertoire of rags and reels, blues ballads, early country blues, and country and gospel music, had more in common with the late Mississippi John Hurt, and indeed also white musicians like Doc Watson, with a pre-blues style dating back to the days before the Civil War, when black string bands would entertain plantation owners with banjo and fiddle.

The story of his discovery in 1964 by the folklorist Charles L. Perdue while singing to a mailman friend who had a part-time job at the local gas station has entered the folklore of folklore. It has the same resonance as the story of Cecil Sharp hearing the gardener John England singing "The Seeds of Love" in a Somerset garden, or Bishop Percy's Reliques being saved from the maidservant who was using them to light the bedroom fire.

Perdue launched him on the folk circuit, introduced him to record companies who released six fine albums, and ensured that he became beloved of blues fans in 68 countries. He received the National Endowment for the Arts' Heritage Fellowship Award in 1986, and performed on the White House lawn for President Jimmy Carter.

Yet, until he was in his late thirties, he was unknown outside his home town. Born in Rappahannock County, Virginia, in 1924, he was the seventh son of the 14 children of Sutte Jackson, a farmer and left-handed musician who played banjo, mandolin, ukelele and guitar, and he had only a few months' schooling, dropping out before he learned to read and write to work on the family farm. His mother played mouth organ and accordion, but restricted her repertoire to gospel songs and hymns.

He had worked as a cook, butler, chauffeur and – most frequently – as a gravedigger before making music his final career. He was not above returning to digging graves when a close friend required interment, however.

John Jackson learned to play guitar when he was 10 on a $3.75 mail-order instrument, being taught his distinctive open tunings by a chain-gang trusty he knew only as Happy, who worked building Route 29-211, the first paved road through Rappahannock County. He was also taught to play the banjo by the Native American husband of his aunt, an instrument he continued to play till his death, on juke-joint tunes like "If Hattie Wants to Lu, Let Her Lu Like a Man".

He learned a few songs from his father – whose left-handed guitar style defeated him – but the bulk of his repertoire was culled from 78rpm discs, played on the second-hand Victrola phonograph the family bought when he was six, by an eclectic group of black and white musicians, such as the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon and Jimmy Rodgers, and even Elvis Presley, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind-Boy Fuller and Blind Blake. He also learned songs from the likes of the Virginia bluesman William Walker, and Willie Walker from South Carolina, who had come to Fairfax to play on the stage Sutte Jackson had erected on his farm.

He composed some of his own material, such as an ode to Chesterfield cigarettes (actually a reworking of the theme as originally composed by Buddy Moss of Atlanta, Georgia), "Rappahannock Blues" and "Fairfax Station Rag", all of which were to appear later on one of his two albums for Alligator, Front Porch Blues, released in 1999, which also featured one track by his son James.

After the chain-gang guitarist had taught Jackson everything he knew, the young man became a much-sought-after musician at local parties and dances, but he stopped playing publicly at the age of 21 because of the violence that often erupted at them, and which had destroyed his first guitar when his brother used it to defend himself from attack during a party brawl. Later, he was to tell this story on "Why I Quit Playing Guitar", a track on Country Blues and Ditties (1999).

In April 1965, he recorded songs for his first record, Blues and Country Dance Songs from Virginia, recorded by Chris Strachwitz for his Arhoolie label the day after they first met. His three vinyl discs for the label were reissued as a 26-track CD, Don't Let Your Deal Go Down. For Rounder he also released Step It Up and Go (1979) and Deep in the Bottom (1982).

Karl Dallas