Full name: Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues

Author: Elijah Wald Year: 2004 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Music, Biographies, History Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads Barns&Noble eBooks.com LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780060524272 0060524278

The life of blues legend Robert Johnson becomes the centerpiece for this innovative look at what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music genre. Pivotal are the questions surrounding why Johnson was ignored by the core black audience of his time yet now celebrated as the greatest figure in blues history. Trying to separate myth from reality, biographer Elijah Wald studies the blues from the inside -- not only examining recordings but also the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, as well as examining original research. What emerges is a new appreciation for the blues and the movement of its artists from the shadows of the 1930s Mississippi Delta to the mainstream venues frequented by today's loyal blues fans. Similar books: Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick Deep Blues by Robert Palmer Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald Feel Like Going Home by Peter Guralnick The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax The History Of The Blues by Francis Davis Rythm Oil by Stanley Booth Talking 'Bout Your Mama by Elijah Wald Lost Highway by Peter Guralnick Let it Blurt by Jim DeRogatis Delta Blues by Ted Gioia Hotel California by Barney Hoskyns Otis Redding by Jonathan Gould Saucerful of Secrets by Nicholas Schaffner Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play by Ben Watson Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches On The Road With The Ramones by Monte A. Melnick Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil John by Cynthia Lennon Bach by John Eliot Gardiner