22. BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON

Like another vision-impaired songster, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Johnson made some late-’20s recordings that stuck around long after his death in 1945. His 1930 take of “John the Revelator” is a blues and rock cornerstone, thanks to its inclusion on the famed “Anthology of American Folk Music.” A Pendleton native, Johnson growled and howled lyrics about death and religion as though trying to purge all ill inclinations. Also like Jefferson, he either coined or popularized much of the blues lingua franca that became the basis of so much ’60s rock: “Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time,” “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” “If I Had My Way I’d Tear the Building Down.” From Led Zeppelin to Tom Waits, it’s impossible to imagine rock ’n’ roll without Johnson’s songs, his burred grumble of a voice, and that wildly teetering slide guitar. Most Texas musical moment: Johnson recorded “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” in Dallas in 1927. Think about how often that phrase has been used in music since.