Growing up in Los Angeles, Jerron Paxton would sit with
an ear by the radio, eagerly absorbing the nuances and
history of Black American traditional music that connect
him to his ancestral roots in the South. A songwriter,
inheritor of tradition, and a walking, talking jukebox,
Paxton approaches his craft with equal part wit and
reverence, with a knack for leg-pulling and cracking wise.
Things Done Changed is an album of original songs that
sound beamed in from nearly a century ago, when jazz
and blues were performed as a means of both personal
and cultural survival. Lick by lick, Paxton builds a bridge
between generations gone and generations to come,
singing the heartaches and joys of the past and present.
Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Paxton's music is steeped in the rich cultural
heritage of the Great Migration. His family’s journey from Shreveport, Louisiana, to the Athens
neighborhood of South LA in the 1950s laid the foundation for his appreciation of Southern
Black culture. As an only child, he spent much of his upbringing absorbing the culture his family
had taken with them to California from the South. Paxton grew up very close with his
grandmother, often shadowing her mannerisms and adopting them as his own. While Futurama
or King of the Hill were on the family TV, he’d find himself sitting down with her, practicing banjo
chords he’d heard on her favorite records. Since relocating from Los Angeles to New York City
in 2007, Paxton has found an embracing audience within the city's diverse cultural communities
and vibrant music scene. He discovered that New Yorkers are sensitive to the kind of
authenticity in storytelling that he was exposed to as a child
“Things Done Changed is my way of honoring the culture I come from,” says Paxton. “I grew up
playing for the last generation of folks who grew up listening to Black banjo players … Born from
the lives of the people who raised me, I hope these songs resonate with listeners as a
continuation of our shared history.”
• “Paxton is “virtually the only music-maker
of his generation—playing guitar, banjo, piano
and violin, among other implements—to fully
assimilate the blues idiom of the 1920s and ‘30s.”
— The Wall Street Journal
• “Paxton shifts from piano to guitar to fiddle
to a five-string banjo that looks like he timetraveled
to the 1920s, stole it from a juke joint,
and dropped it on the ground a few times on the
way back.” — The Village Voice
• “His singing voice is of a kind that one just
falls into; it wraps around you, cradles you, and
doesn’t let go, and his delivery is what I would
call “singing storytelling” (in the true tradition of
the blues)....If you have a chance to see Paxton in
concert, grab it with both hands.”
— The Snycopated Times
• “He is not merely a preservationist mining
bygone decades for esoteric material or works
that fit a certain aesthetic or brand. He simply
takes music that is significant to his identity,
his culture, and his experience and showcases it
for a broader audience. Its value does not reside
solely in its history or in the authentic replication
of that history, but also exists in its present, its
relevance to modern times, and its future, as
well.” — The Bluegrass Situation