Although 25-year-old songster Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton has been legally blind since his teens, his ability to tap into traditional American music reveals a perceptiveness and focus that few others are able to achieve. A gifted multi-instrumentalist who specializes in traditional, pre-World War II music, Paxton plays the fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, and piano, and his performances are filled with ballads (both sung and played), blues tunes, banjo tunes, fiddle tunes, rags, and more. TheCountryBlues.com declares that, “A fabulous new country blues talent as impressive as Jerron Paxton is not just rare, his extraordinary talent is almost surreal.” Ask this self-proclaimed “thorough musician” what he does, though, and he’ll tell you that “All I do is play music; I’m too lazy to work.”

Blind Boy Paxton will be playing this year’s festival on Saturday, August 2nd.