The Country Blues

From the field cries and work chants of Southern Negroes emerged a rich and vital music called the country blues, an intensely personal expression of the pains and pleasures of black life. This music--recorded during the twenties by men like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big Bill Broonzy, and Robert Johnson--had all but disappeared from memory until the folk music revival of the late 1950's created a new and appreciable audience for the country blues.On of the pioneering studies of this unjustly-neglected music was Sam Charter's The Country Blues. In it, Charters recreates the special world of the country bluesman--that lone black performer accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar, his music a rich reflection of his own emotional life.Virtually rewriting the history of the blues, Charters reconstructs its evolution and dissemination, from the first tentative soundings on the Mississippi Delta through the emergence, with Elvis Presley, of rock and roll. His carefully-researched biographies of near-legendary performers like Lonnie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, and Tampa Red--coupled with his perceptive discussions of their recordings--pay tribute to a kind of artistry that will never be seen or heard again. And his portraits of the still-strumming Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters, and Lightnin' Hopkins--point up the undying strength and vitality of the country blues.

CONTENIDO:

Preface to the 1975 Edition
Introduction to the 1959 Edition

1. A Music "...Extraordinary Wild and Unaccountable"
2. "That Gives Me the Blues to go Back to Dallas"
3. The Crazy Blues
4. Blind Lemon
5. "You Don't See Into These Blues Like Me"
6. "... The Noisiest Dams Place in the World"
7. Dr. Stokey, Dr. Benson, Dr. C. E. Hangerson
8. The Memphis Jug Bands
9. "Goin' to Kansas City"
10. Leroy Carr
11. The 14000's
12. Blind Willie
13. "Big Bill Broomsley"
14. "I Got the Bluebird Beat"
15. 49, 51, 61
16. Robert Johnson
17. "Hey, Mama, Hey, Pretty Girl"
18. Brownie McGhee
19. "The Mommies and Daddies from Coast to Coast"
20. Muddy Waters
21. Lightnin'

Appendix:
Recorded Blues Background
The Blues Recordings

Index