Overview

All prior histories on the blues have alleged it originated on plantations in the Mississippi Delta. Not true, says author Chris Thomas King. In The Blues, King presents facts to disprove such myths. For example, as early as 1900, the sound of the blues was ubiquitous in New Orleans. The Mississippi Delta, meanwhile, was an unpopulated sportsman's paradise--the frontier was still in the process of being cleared and drained for cultivation. Moreover, this book is the first to argue that the blues began as a cosmopolitan art form, not a rural one. Protestant states such as Mississippi and Alabama could not have incubated the blues. New Orleans was the only place in the Deep South where the sacred and profane could party together without fear of persecution. Expecting these findings to be controversial in some circles, King has buttressed his conclusions with primary sources and years of extensive research, including a sojourn to West Africa and interviews with surviving folklorists and blues researchers from the 1960s folk-rediscovery epoch. They say the blues is blasphemous--the devil's music. King says they're unenlightened, that blues music is about personal freedom.

Full Product Details

9798874620370

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

"Chris Thomas King was discovered in Louisiana in 1979 by a folklorist from the Smithsonian Institute and introduced to the world by folk label Arhoolie Records as an authentic folk-blues successor to Huddie ""Leadbelly"" Ledbetter, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Jelly Roll Morton. He played the itinerant bluesman Tommy Johnson in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, and he has earned numerous awards, including an Album of the Year Grammy and an Album of the Year Country Music Award. Adam Lazarre-White is an award-winning stage, film, and television actor as well as a screenwriter, director, and producer. Reared on the stage in roles such as Mercutio of Romeo and Juliet and Stanley of A Streetcar Named Desire, he is best known for his film and television work, which includes The Gift, Ocean's Thirteen, Rosewood, and The Young and the Restless. An award-winning audiobook narrator, he enjoys the opportunity to bring colorful characters to life."

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available