Category Archives: – Blues history

– Blind Slave Plays Bach

Blind James Campbell, Blind Blake, Blind Jim Brewer, Blind John Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Arvella Gray, Blind Joe Hill, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Tom Wiggins, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Joe Reynolds, Blind Joe Taggar, Blind Willie Walker, Blind Blake. What do these men have in common? They are all Afro-Americans musicians […]

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– To be blue is to sing the blues

Abstract: The article aims at gathering some of the statements and arguments in the over debated question on the balance of the European and African cultural elements in the blues. It finds that the different positions in the debate bear a remarkable resemblance to two theoretical schools in the cultural anthropology, namely the cultural evolutionist […]

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– The Blues performer as business entrepreneur

The history of the United States flows largely in the riverbed of the relationship between the white and the African American population. The way in which those ethnic groups have interacted since colonization fills the main chapters of the book on the development of this nation. As a student of the emergence of the blues […]

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– The blues cradle stands on indian mounds

Many places in the Southern states claim the title of birth place of the blues. Memphis, Clarksdale, New Orleans, Texas… In the most spread collective image the cradle of the blues stands in the Mississippi Delta. The fact that the self proclaimed father of the blues, W.C. Handy, was unfortunate to be stuck in the […]

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– Ebony Hillbillies: About string band music and chocolate drops

In my previous article, I had the occasion to highlight the genius of Dock Boggs, a.k.a. Moran Lee Boggs an influential old-time singer, songwriter and banjo player whose style of banjo playing, as well as his singing, is considered as a unique combination of Appalachian folk music and African-American blues. His work lead to me […]

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