The Life and Death of Blind Lemon Pledge, Part 1
Todd Snider shares original recording of 'Burn Out Shoes' from unreleased 2014 album 'Take the Blind Lemon Pledge and Stick It to the Man'
By Daryl Sanders
Comedian Martin Mull used to perform a bit called “Straight Talk About the Blues,” which appeared on his 1973 LP Martin Mull & His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room. In the bit, Mull claims his grandfather was a white bluesman named Blind Lemon Pledge. It was a joke that combined the name of legendary Texas bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson with the cleaning product Lemon Pledge.
Todd Snider doesn’t know if he ever came across that Martin Mull bit in his childhood — he would have been 6 years old when the record was released. But somehow the name was kicking around in his head when he was coming up with pseudonyms for the members of the Eastside Bulldogs, his alter ego Elmo Buzz’s band. At the band’s first performance on Dec. 23, 2006, he introduced guitarist and longtime musical associate Will Kimbrough as Blind Lemon Pledge. That appears to be the first time Snider ever mentioned Blind Lemon Pledge in public.