Blues 
-
-
SOURCE: Pop Matters
1/11/2023
The Unlikely Story of the 1960s Revival of Delta Blues Giant Son House
After shifts in African American musical styles, the Great Depression and the Great Migration consigned him to obscurity, Son House recorded live music in the 1960s.
-
-
SOURCE: NPR
12/12/2022
Protege of Gospel Blues Great Reverend Gary Davis Seeks to Preserve Legacy
Stefan Grossman started studying Davis's fingerpicked style after the older man had settled in the Bronx in the 1960s.
-
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
7/20/2022
Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?
by Carlo Rotella
Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music.
-
-
SOURCE: Hyde Park Herald
3/3/2022
Chicago Landmarks Commission Authorizes $250,000 for Rehab of Muddy Waters's House
The grant advances the renovation of the house on Chicago's south side for use as a museum and educational space.
-
-
6/20/2021
"Juke": Bluesman Bobby Rush on the Roots of Rock and Roll
by Bobby Rush with Herb Powell
Blues musician Bobby Rush's new autobiography chronicles his life and career, and the way that the appropriation of Black music into American popular culture often left Black entertainers behind. Read here how he remembers the roots of rock and roll.
-
-
SOURCE: American Scholar
3/13/2021
The Baddest Man in Town
by Eric McHenry
Writer Eric McHenry recounts picking up the documentary trail (started in the 1970s by John Russell David) of the notorious "Stagger Lee" Shelton, whose reign of terror in early 20th century St. Louis became immortalized in song and legend.
-
-
SOURCE: New York Review of Books
11/19/2020
The Devil Had Nothing to Do With It
by Greil Marcus
The music writer looks at three recent books on the Mississippi blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson, looking to pull his story out of the realm of myth.
-
-
SOURCE: New York Times
8/8/2020
A Song That Changed Music Forever
by David Hajdu
With “Crazy Blues,” Mamie Smith opened the door to a surge of powerfully voiced female singers who defied the conventions of singerly gentility to make the blues a popular phenomenon in the 1920s.
-
-
SOURCE: NPR
6/26/2020
We Insist: A Century Of Black Music Against State Violence
Like music itself, this spirit of resistance takes many shapes, but has never been silenced.
-
-
6/7/2020
"I Imagine Everything Happened on Beale Street": Remembering Memphis in "Brother Robert"
by Annye C. Anderson and Preston Lauterbach
In an excerpt from the new book Brother Robert, Annye Anderson, sister of blues legend Robert Johnson, describes time spent with Johnson in Memphis, and the trends in music, movies, and black politics that shaped Johnson's personality as well as his innovative music.
-
-
SOURCE: Vanity Fair
5/20/2020
Exclusive First Look at New Photograph of Blues Legend Robert Johnson
Even if he didn’t sell his soul at the Crossroads, the massively influential Mississippi guitarist remains shrouded in mystery. An upcoming memoir from his 94-year-old stepsister brings new depth to Johnson’s mythos—and the third verified picture of him in existence.