Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson

Author: Barry Lee Pearson

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 0252092120

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Even with just forty-one recordings to his credit, Robert Johnson (1911-38) is a towering figure in the history of the blues. His vast influence on twentieth-century American music, combined with his mysterious death at the age of twenty-seven, still encourage the speculation and myth that have long obscured the facts about his life. The most famous legend depicts a young Johnson meeting the Devil at a dusty Mississippi crossroads at midnight and selling his soul in exchange for prodigious guitar skills. Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch examine the full range of writings about Johnson and weigh the conflicting accounts of Johnson's life story against interviews with blues musicians and others who knew the man. Their extensive research uncovers a life every bit as compelling as the fabrications and exaggerations that have sprung up around it. In examining the bluesman's life and music, and the ways in which both have been reinvented and interpreted by other artists, critics, and fans, Robert Johnson: Lost and Found charts the cultural forces that have mediated the expression of African American artistic traditions.

Kennedy's Blues
Kennedy's Blues

Author: Guido van Rijn

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2009-09-23

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1604731591

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Kennedy's Blues: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on JFK collects in a single volume the blues and gospel songs written by African Americans about the presidency of John F. Kennedy and offers a close analysis of Kennedy's hold upon the African-American imagination. These blues and gospel songs have never been transcribed and analyzed in a systematic way, so this volume provides a hitherto untapped source on the perception of one of the most intriguing American presidents. After eight years of Republican rule, the young Democratic president received a warm welcome from African Americans. However, with the Cold War military draft and the slow pace of civil rights measures, inspiration temporarily gave way to impatience. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, the March on Washington, and the groundbreaking civil rights bill all found their way into blues and gospel songs. The many blues numbers devoted to the assassination and the president's legacy are evidence of JFK's near-canonization by African Americans. Blues historian Guido van Rijn shows that John F. Kennedy became a mythical hero to blues songwriters despite what was left unaccomplished.

Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon

Author: Mitsutoshi Inaba

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 0810869934

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One of the greats of blues music, Willie Dixon was a recording artist whose abilities extended beyond that of bass player. A singer, songwriter, arranger, and producer, Dixon's work influenced countless artists across the music spectrum. In Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues, Mitsutoshi Inaba examines Dixon's career, from his earliest recordings with the Five Breezes through his major work with Chess Records and Cobra Records. Focusing on Dixon's work on the Chicago blues from the 1940s to the early 1970s, this book details the development of Dixon's songwriting techniques from his early professional career to his mature period and compares the compositions he provided for different artists. This volume also explores Dixon's philosophy of songwriting and its social, historical, and cultural background. This is the first study to discuss his compositions in an African American cultural context, drawing upon interviews with his family and former band members. This volume also includes a detailed list of Dixon's session work, in which his compositions are chronologically organized.

The British Blues Network
The British Blues Network

Author: Andrew Kellett

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2017-09-19

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0472036998

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An exciting new examination of how African-American blues music was emulated and used by white British musicians in the late 1950s and early 1960s

A Blues Bibliography
A Blues Bibliography

Author: Robert Ford

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-03-31

Total Pages: 1401

ISBN-13: 1135865086

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This revised and updated definitive blues bibliography now includes 6,000-7,000 entries to cover the last decade’s writings and new figures to have emerged on the Country and modern blues to the R&B scene.

The Amazing Secret History of Elmore James
The Amazing Secret History of Elmore James

Author: Steve Franz

Publisher: Bluesource Publications

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13:

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Biography of blues slide guitar legend Elmore James. Includes bibliography, discography, index, illustrated. Over 20 pages of b&w photos. Full color cover.

Notes
Notes

Author: Music Library Association

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13:

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Popular Singers of the Twentieth Century
Popular Singers of the Twentieth Century

Author: Robert H. Cowden

Publisher: Greenwood

Published: 1999-07-30

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13:

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This guide to the biographical literature available on popular 20th-century singers covers nearly 1000 artists. Much of the literature cited is also cross-referenced to major biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and relevant periodicals. Entries not only list known publications associated with popular singers but also incorporate elements of analytical and descriptive bibliography. The artists included in this volume increasingly cross musical boundaries. The popular singer category, therefore, encompasses Broadway, Hollywood, cabaret, and operetta performers as well as recording artists. Scholars of popular music and popular music enthusiasts will appreciate the extensive research this work embodies. Divided among three sections, citations are arranged alphabetically and include information about literature published through 1997. An appendix of additional artists and an index complete the volume.