‘Blind Boy’ Paxton Lecture and Concert Bring the Blues to Life

When the musician walks in carrying four instruments—two banjos, one guitar, and one fiddle– and takes a seat at the piano and then proceeds to pull out four more instruments (three harmonicas and a pair of bones), you know you’re in for something special. Through a rather circuitous route, I’m sitting in the small but impressively bright, sunny, and modern space of a place called Bagaduce Music, located in the idyllic and bucolic town of Blue Hill, Maine in mid-August, waiting for the start of a ragtime piano demonstration and lecture by an artist known as “Blind Boy Paxton” (his given name is Jerron). As I study the brightly-colored artwork on the pristinely-white walls and admire the skylights set into the sloped and vaulted ceiling that lets in copious amounts of natural light, my curiosity grows. Paxton is a New York City-based artist (originally from California) who I had not previously heard of. I’d only recently discovered Bagaduce Music, and I’d come across the listing for Paxton’s two shows (one on Friday and one on Saturday) on their event calendar. Not knowing much about Paxton, I bought two tickets to the “lecture and demonstration,” rather than his evening concert, which was held the day before—a choice I came to regret within two minutes of the opening notes of Paxton’s blistering, mesmerizing, pick-my-jaw-up-off-the-floor performance. Folks,