The United States declared 2003 the Year of the Blues by presidential proclamation on February 1. And it is a dedication that has borne some strange fruit, but surely none stranger than the sudden appearance of Blind Lemon Jefferson on Texas number plates.
The state has inaugurated a programme of special issue plates bearing the slogan 'Enjoy Texas Music' alongside the image of a pioneering Texan artist. Plates will be issued every two years, and Jefferson was chosen to be the first.
Not all Texans, it appears, were in favour of the choice and there are tetchy redneck messages posted in internet chat rooms complaining that the honour should have gone to various other artists, most of whom, curiously, are or were white.
Bob Wills, Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan are the favourites, but the office of Texas Governor Rick Perry, which is seeking nominations for the next issue, offers a choice of 478 possible nominees on its website.
Jefferson, had he a say in the matter, might have preferred a non-automotive tribute. He died, trapped in his car, in a Chicago snowstorm, probably after suffering a heart attack. His chauffeur fled the scene without attempting to summon help.
The most surprising aspect of this incident to many people is that Jefferson owned a car and was able to employ a driver. His, after all, is the archetypal blues name, involving as it does both citrus fruit and a physical disability. The joke names for imaginary bluesmen are usually variants on his, and it evokes associations of rather greater poverty than afflicted him during the latter stages of his career.