Another historic blues great, Huddie Ledbetter ('Lead Belly'), traveled to Texas where he played his twelve-string guitar with the likes of Jefferson in Deep Ellum. Many music historians and guitar aficionados credit these songs, which include his legendary 'Cross Road Blues,' for laying the fundamental groundwork for rock-and-roll. Two landmark sessions in San Antonio (1936) and Dallas (1937) captured the only recorded legacy of guitarist Robert Johnson, the itinerant Delta bluesman from Mississippi. In the 1930s, 'race labels' recorded many black blues musicians in Texas. His recordings from 1926 to 1929 were the first blues records to be commercially successful and thus introduce what had been an African-American music form to a national audience. Blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson from Freestone County, Texas, is credited as the first blues star. Texans played major roles in pioneering these varied styles, including blues, jazz, and western swing. Rock-and-roll's historic roots lie in a fusion of several musical genres that came into prominence in the early decades of the twentieth century. These musicians include T-Bone Walker, Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

The Hall has also honored other musicians, both native Texans and those who made a name in the Lone Star State, as early influences critical to the genre's development. Some of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's most high-profile inductees, including Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, and Janis Joplin, pioneered the direction of the musical idiom. Texas musicians have profoundly influenced the development and evolution of rock-and-roll and the various branches of its musical tree-rockabilly, blues rock, Tex-Mex, psychedelia, and redneck rock.

African american guitar player