Review of Jerron Paxton’s 2024 blues album, “Things Done Changed”.
I know it’s difficult to get excited about a new blues album these days. This album came out in the fall of last year so it’s no longer new. Often I browse the “New” section of Apple Music to see if there’s anything interesting. If there’s nothing new from a band I’ve heard of I’ll click on a band I haven’t heard of if the album cover looks cool.
That’s how I found Jerron Paxton’s album. I thought the cover looked cool and I liked his name. I also saw that it was put out by Smithsonian Folkways so it had a lot going for it from the start. I listened to the album on repeat for a few hours while working that day. It’s hard for me to concentrate on the lyrics when I’m working as I’ll just get snippets of parts of songs between running machines, so what drew me to the album was the overall sound. At least at first.
I left the shop and forgot about the album. I was driving a week later listening to the radio and NPR was doing an interview with Jerrod Paxton about this very album. I learned that Paxton is blind, only 35 years old and this is his first original album. Seems he’s been making records of mostly covers since 2012. Paxton moved from his home in South Central L.A. to Queens in 2007 where his music began to take shape. All of this interested me a great deal. Especially when you listen to the album.
It’s a blues album and it sounds like a traditional blues album. The album starts with the only single, “Things Done Changed”. It’s just Paxton singing while sort of claw plucking a guitar. Paxton half says words that slosh together as though the vocals were more of an instrument than a relayer of the song’s subject matter. I had no idea that this guy was only 35 years old. I was certain he was an older man. I don’t know what that says, if anything, but it certainly surprised me.
I relistened to the album many times in a quiet environment and loved one song in particular called, “So Much Weed”. It’s a song that observes the relaxed NY laws on weed compared with what his uncles had to go through in the 90’s. How using “blueberry kush” helps him ease his mind and may allow him to live a longer life. It’s a fun song. Equally fun is the song, “Oxtail Blues” where Paxton plays a ragtime piano number while complaining about the price of oxtails and neck bones. I don’t think he’s trying to be funny because of the way he delivers the lines, but he certainly knows it’s clever. You can hear it in his voice.
I don’t listen to a lot of blues because if I do it starts to sound the same to me. Variations of the 12 bar blues progression with very similar subjects. You have to concentrate to pull the unique quality of what made so-and-so different. I’m not sure that’s the case with Jerron Paxton. While the music feels familiar (even with him switching instruments often) his voice is more modern and the subject matter feels new.
That’s rare. Rare enough that I spent a little time writing a review about this album so I don’t forget it.