Lonesome Blues opened this past Sunday, February 25, 2024 at Club Dada in the Deep Ellum district of Dallas, Texas.

This one-man musical is a tribute to Wortham’s own Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The performance looks back on his life during the moments before his death in Chicago on a cold December night in 1929. Blind Lemon’s memories come to life through his music in a journey that is at once evocative, troubling, and transformative.

 

“Fascinating to hear the throbbing, shouting, moaning, whispered songs of Blind Lemon Jefferson,” says Onstage NTX.

“Beautiful portrayal of Blind Lemon,” said John Garcia’s The Column.

“Blind Lemon Jefferson was the voice of Black America at that moment,” said August Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

 

Lonesome Blues by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatundé builds on the critical acclaim of earlier musical Blind Lemon Blues, which premiered in Paris and Geneva and was staged in Central Park and in two Off-Broadway productions at the York theatre in New York City. In Lonesome Blues, Govenar and Babatundé probe deeper into Blind Lemon’s life, music, and psyche.

Directed by Babatundé, Lonesome Blues stars J. Dontray Davis, who plays more than ten different roles, channeling the spirits of men and women alike, including Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lead Belly, Hattie Hudson, Lillian Miller, Bobbie Cadillac, and Blind Willie Johnson.

Born in Freestone County in 1893, Blind Lemon Jefferson was discovered on a street corner in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas in 1925. Over the course of the next four years, Blind Lemon became the biggest selling country blues singer of his generation, propelling the growth of rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, rap and hip-hop.

Blind Lemon is remembered locally each year with the annual Wortham Blues Festival held the second Saturday of September.

Lonesome Blues is produced by Documentary Arts in association with Central Track Productions.

The show will continue with 2:00 p.m. weekend matinees through Sunday, April 7, 2024.

Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for youth, and may be purchased online at lonesomebluesmusical.com

The one-man musical is sponsored in part by the Deep Ellum Community Association; and presented in association with the African American Museum in Dallas, which is presenting two exhibitions to commemorate Deep Ellum’s 150th anniversary.