Out of Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, and Blind Willie Johnson (am I forgetting someone?) it would be hard to choose. I was thinking about this lately, after listening to Johnson closely for the past week or so, and then listening to McTell and Jefferson and Blake. Damn they're all so good. To me that's creative genius, and a sad American story to boot, reading about how Johnson and Jefferson died and seeing how their accomplishments were largely overlooked in their day.
Blind Willie Johnson's voice is really something -- even Howlin Wolf doesn't match it for power and Johnson has a light touch, too, when he wants to use it. For guitar virtuoso Blake and McTell really shine -- but they sing with a more sophisticated, popular approach, I'd say. The mix used back then, with the vocals way up in front and the perfect acoustic guitar playing used for color and drive, as opposed to having the guitars up front seeming to say, look what I can do, has really been lost. Lemon Jefferson might be the greatest artist -- his quirky playing is a marvel and his singing and his lyrics -- did you ever hear that coffin sound (or coughin) -- believe to my soul that woman's gonna voodoo me -- my mind left me took a trip down south and so on. . .
Well these were great American artists and they should be studied in schools and taught to school children . . .