FOOTMAD Presents
Our 45th Concert Season
2026-2027
Enjoy nationally and world-acclaimed musicians
in intimate concert settings in the valley's finest theaters.
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Order by phone.
Call 304-729-4382
Jerron Paxton
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Acclaimed American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songster
"A masterful multi-instrumentalist and captivating storyteller, Jerron Paxton brings traditional acoustic blues vividly to life. Moving seamlessly between blues, folk, ragtime and early jazz, his performances are rich in history, humour and heart. ... With a joyful spirit, a superb voice and an easy rapport with audiences, this American bluesman is a true audience favourite." -- Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival
2026 September 19 - Saturday - 7:30 PM
Capitol Theater (Resurrection Church)
123 Summers St, Charleston WV -
Bio
Jerron Paxton is widely celebrated for his uncanny ability to transform and revive pre-World War II traditional Black American folk music. His mastery spans early acoustic blues, ragtime, stride piano jazz, hokum, and Appalachian mountain music. Critics often praise him as one of the few musicians of his generation to fully assimilate the musical styles of 1920s and 1930s icons like Fats Waller, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, and Mississippi John Hurt.
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.
His latest album, 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.
“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.”
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Website
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Videos
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Facebook
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Feature article
Meet Jerron Paxton, a modern day songster, minstrel and bluesman - Acoustic Roots & Country Blues
“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”
“When the musician walks in carrying four instruments - two banjos, one guitar, and one fiddle - and takes a seat at the piano and then proceeds to pull out four more instruments (three harmonicas and a pair of bones), you know you’re in for something special.”
“When Jerron Paxton gets on stage he breaks into a natural smile that carries through the entire performance. He exudes total happiness as someone who so evidently loves what he is doing, the audience is immediately encapsulated into his songs. There is a warm intimacy, a natural hearted love for what he is doing that simply engages the audience and create a connection. He calls it , “giving each audience member personal time.” In some way he is reminiscent of a young Louis Armstrong, a man who beamed from ear to ear not because he wanted to play nice to the audience, but because he had such fun. Jerron Paxton is having fun and so will you, with your own “personal time”.”
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Order by phone.
Call 304-729-4382
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Concert Time
Concert starts at 7:30 pm
Box office sales start at 6:30 pm
Doors open at 6:30 pm
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Tickets
$25 in advance
$30 at the door
$10 StudentsChildren under 13 admitted free
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Concert FAQs
All the FAQs and nothing but the FAQs
This project is supported with financial assistance from
the West Virginia Department of Tourism and
the National Endowment for the Arts,
with approval of
the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.
FOOTMAD appreciates Fund for the Arts major donors ($10,000+) who keep culture strong in the Kanawha Valley: City of Charleston, Cecil I. Walker Charitable Trust, William Maxwell Davis Trust, Daywood Foundation, Spilman Thomas & Battle, Dutch Miller, and WSAZ.
