Sam Myers: The Blues Is My Story

Sam Myers: The Blues Is My Story recounts the life of bluesman Sam Myers (1936-2006), as told in his own words to author Jeff Horton. My...

9:47 AM

On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom

On Highway 61 explores the historical context of the significant social dissent that was central to the cultural genesis of the sixties. T...

4:23 PM

The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States

When Jimi Hendrix transfixed the crowds of Woodstock with his gripping version of "The Star Spangled Banner," he was building on...

10:38 AM

Upside Your Head!: Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue

Legendary jazzman Johnny Otis has spent a lifetime at the center of L.A.'s black music scene as a composer, performer, producer, d.j.,...

10:22 AM

The Blues Lyric Formula

This book is the first rigourous and detailed exploration of exactly how blues singers used formulas to create songs, and it more than amp...

8:35 AM

Southern Soul-Blues

Attracting passionate fans primarily among African American listeners in the South, Southern Soul draws on such diverse influences as the ...

7:31 AM

Blues Boy: The Life and Music of B. B. King

B B. King has never let up in his fight to become the living personification of the best of the blues for the whole world. He was indeed ...

9:43 AM

Mississippi John Hurt: His Life, His Times, His Blues

When Mississippi John Hurt (1892-1966) was "rediscovered" by blues revivalists in 1963, his musicianship and recordings transfor...

7:24 AM

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

Born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone (1933-2003) began her musical life playing classical piano. A child prodigy, she ...

5:18 PM

Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South

As one of the first African American vocalists to be recorded, Bessie Smith is a prominent figure in American popular culture and African ...

9:04 AM

Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing, and Rhythm and Blues

Detailing the fascinating career of Joe Evans, Follow Your Heart chronicles the nearly thirty years that he spent immersed in one of the m...

8:52 AM

Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock 'n' Roll

This vivid celebration of blues and early rock 'n' roll includes some of the first and most illuminating profiles of such blues ma...

11:48 AM

Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom

This masterful exploration of American roots music--country, rockabilly, and the blues--spotlights the artists who created a distinctly Am...

11:35 AM

A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song

"Black-Jewish relations," Jeffrey Melnick argues, has mostly been a way for American Jews to talk about their ambivalent racial...

3:28 PM

The Land Where the Blues Began

A self-described “song-hunter,” the folklorist Alan Lomax traveled the Mississippi Delta in the 1930’s and ‘40s, armed with primitive reco...

10:26 AM

I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy

A major figure in American blues and folk music, Big Bill Broonzy (1903–1958) left his Arkansas Delta home after World War I, headed north...

1:28 PM

African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective

The African Diaspora presents musical case studies from various regions of the African diaspora, including Africa, the Caribbean, Latin Am...

8:59 AM

Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues

One of the greats of blues music, Willie Dixon was a recording artist whose abilities extended beyond that of bass player. A singer, songw...

8:53 AM

Race and Curriculum: Music in Childhood Education

This book focuses on the near total attrition of African American students from school music programs and the travesty of democratic educa...

10:19 AM

Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz

The commercial explosion of ragtime in the early twentieth century created previously unimagined opportunities for black performers. Howev...

6:39 AM