Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton may look as though he has stepped out of another era, but his music is firmly alive in the present. Born in Los Angeles into a family with roots in Louisiana, he is one of today’s most accomplished interpreters and scholars of Black American musical traditions, moving effortlessly through blues, ragtime, old-time, jazz and Cajun music. Guitar, banjo, piano, fiddle, harmonica and accordion all find their way into performances where virtuosity sits alongside humour, storytelling and an immediate connection with the audience. In 2024, he released Things Done Changed on Smithsonian Folkways, his first album made entirely from original songs: a record that looks back not to recreate the past, but to show how much these traditions still have to say.
