This book is the first rigourous and detailed exploration of exactly how blues singers used formulas to create songs, and it more than amply fills the gap in th

TIM A. RYAN is associate professor of English at Northern Illinois University and the author of Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery Since ""Gone

While all music genres incorporate religious imagery, the blues has its origin in the soil of the church. In its infancy, the blues was often dismissed as under

The first full-length authoritative Encyclopedia on the Blues as a musical form. A to Z in format, this work covers not only the performers, but also musical st

Collects interviews and commentary on blues and gospel music from the Mississippi Delta area, and discusses how race relations, connections to the sacred, and S