BLIND LEADIN’ THE BLIND…

This week’s “question about music you’ve always been afraid to ask”:

Why were so many of the rural / delta blues singers blind?

I mean, you’d be hard-pressed to name more than a handful of notable blind musicians in any other genre, but when it comes to the blues, well…

First of all, you’ve obviously got big hitters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell and the Rev. Blind Gary Davis.

Then Alan Lomax’s ‘The Land Where the Blues Began’, which I’m reading at the moment, also features sections on at least half a dozen other influential musicians and composers who just happened to be blind, even though they didn’t attach it to the start of their names.

And looking at lesser known figures, John Fahey’s ‘American Primitive Vol.1’ compilation alone chronicles the work of Blind Willie Davis, Blind Joe Taggart, Blind Roosevelt Graves and the superbly named Blind Mamie Forehand.

Yet as far as I know, nobody has actually addressed the reasons behind this prevalence of blindness…

Was there a tradition in poor black communities of blind people taking up music in order to support themselves… singing for their supper, so to speak?

Or, thanks to harsh conditions, non-existent healthcare, disease and work-related accidents, were there simply a whole load of blind people hanging around down in the delta?

Or alternatively, did the overriding influence and legendary status of Blind Lemon Jefferson encourage blind people to follow suit and take up the blues, or even lead people with healthy sight to create their own blind alter-egos to boost their cache of mythic blues-ness (hey, it worked for Blind Joe Death)?

Enquiring minds want to know!