Join the Dallas Mavericks and one of our favorite musical artists from just up the Trinity River, Grammy Award Winning Recording Artist and Fort Worth Native, Leon Bridges, as we honor more than a century of rich cultural influence in one of the birthplaces of American Blues music, right here in our backyard.

Dallas/Fort Worth, this is Trinity River Blues.

In the late 19^th century, musicians in the American South began exploring an entirely new form of music, emotionally evocative, sophisticated, Sunday service gospel mixed with warmth, inspiration and hope — what we now call the Blues. More than a century later, the influence of the Blues continues to reverberate through Jazz, Hip-Hop, Pop and Rock.

It’s a largely untold story even here in North Texas, but no geographic area was more closely tied to the origin of the Blues than Dallas/Fort Worth.

In 1912, young violinist Hart Wand overheard a porter whistling a tune. He turned the tune into the first published Blues song to hit the charts. It was called ‘Dallas Blues.’ Within weeks of its publication, this piano piece was heard up and down the Mississippi River. ‘Dallas Blues’ instantly put the city of Dallas on the Blues map and influenced music for decades to come.

Texas native Robert “Blind Lemon” Jefferson was one of the most prominent figures in the early Blues movement, dating back to the early 1910s. He spent his younger years performing on street corners, in cafes and in front of barber shops near the railway crossroads in central Dallas. His distinctive high-pitched voice and revolutionary guitar picking set off a chain reaction in the growth of the Blues.

Musicians traveled from the countryside to the city, bringing with them a sudden influx of musical talent to the area. Arriving via the railways in the very same spot where Blind Lemon played, they created a Blues melting pot in the Dallas neighborhood we now call Deep Ellum.