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on his leg. Then after about six months, they took the chain off and made him a trusty. We’d come from the poor town field about six and sit up on the hill to watch for Hap. He’d go home with us and have supper. He didn’t have to be back in’til 9. About six months later they set him free.”
After his release, Hap stayed with the Jacksons for a while, strumming and singing the songs that left such an impact on his young listener. John remembers only one—Midnight Blues, a good-love-gone-bad story with repetitive verses and chord patterns that fit right in with the classical definition of country blues.
One day the convict up and left. “We followed him to the nearest town of Sperryville and watched him catch the mail truck. We never saw him again.’’ Jackson doesn’t know what happened to his old teacher or even remember his last name. “We only knew him as Hap. He was the happiest man you ever saw in your life—always laughing, whistling and singing,’’ Jackson recalled, smiling at the memory.
Roots In Country
And Blues
Hap was just the first influence on John’s style. Next came a host from the musical archives: Blind Blake, Bessie Smith, Lemon Jefferson*, Furry Lewis —black blues singers recorded in the 1930s on race labels.
But Jackson is unusual in that he listened to more than just black blues. Ticking off the names of greats and near greats who had an impact on his style. John digs deep into the roots of country music to put Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter family high on his list.
In an unbroken musical circle, Rodgers and the Carters hark back to the blues for inspiration: as a railroad engineer, Rodgers traveled the country to see many of the original black singers and A. P. Carter picked up much of his material and style from a black blues singer out of Virginia.
Blake, Jefferson, Smith, Rodgers, the Carters—they all came to the Jackson home and stayed* captured on circles of wax. “Two furniture dealers with a horse and wagon all loaded up drove into the yard one day. My father ran them off but when he went back to the fields, they came back around and they had this old wind-up victrola going. “God Almighty, where’d you get that music box from?’ my
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