There have been many blues books published over the years focussing on individual blues styles and artists. This book belongs on the shelf of the historian, the blues buff, and the music lover. Gioia writes with the hand of an historian and the ear of a musician

There have been many blues books published over the years focussing on individual blues styles and artists. all the way through the great Chicago Blues heroes (with delta roots). Gioia writes with the hand of an historian and the ear of a musician. Much more than a "fan book," Delta Blues places the history of this musical form into its unique context as history, folk art and commercial endeavor.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-426), discography (p. 417-422), and index

Includes bibliographical references (p. 417-422), and index. The blues and the old kingdoms - Where the southern cross the dog - Dockery's plantation - Parchman prison - Hard time killin' floor - Hellhound on my trail - I'm a rolling stone - Hooker's boogie - Smokestack lightnin' - Riding with the King - The blues revival.

Gioia brings to life the old Delta masters from Charley Patton to Son House and Skip James and the legend of Robert Johnson, to those who migrated north and helped influence a new sound-Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and . Blues is the roots and everything else is the fruits" - Willie Dixon "Blues had a. baby and they called it rock and roll" - Muddy Waters. In this book, Ted Gioia gets to the roots of the roots-the Delta Blues, arguably the greatest influence in music today.

Ted Gioia (born 21 October 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian who wrote The History of Jazz and Delta Blues, both selected as notable books of the year by The New York Times. He is also a jazz musician and one of the founders of Stanford University's jazz studies program

The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Illustrated by Neil Harpe. 449 pp. W. Norton & Company.

The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Ben Ratliff is a music critic for The Times and the author of The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music, which is being published this month.

This book gives a good understanding of the people, times and attitudes surrounding the music of the delta. The author unfortunately uses too many words which would dazzle an English Master in describing some of these musical interludes

This book gives a good understanding of the people, times and attitudes surrounding the music of the delta. The author unfortunately uses too many words which would dazzle an English Master in describing some of these musical interludes. Most if us are not musically trained so many of his phrases meant nothing to me. Having said that, I did find it a good read about a subject I have fallen in love with. I learned a lot about the Delta, the artists and their attitudes, and how America, because of its ongoing bias, nearly lost one of its most valuable treasures.

There is no question: If you love the blues, or any music, that is, Ted Gioia’s utterly fascinating work, Delta Blues, will leave you with an immense appreciation for an essential era of American musical and cultural history. It's a phenomenal subject to tackle.

In: Journal of the Society for American Music, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 507-508. View it in the Music Periodicals Database.

Download Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music or any other file from Books category. From the field hollers of nineteenth-century plantations to Muddy Waters and . King, Delta Blues delves into the uneasy mix of race and money at the point where traditional music became commercial and bluesmen found new audiences of thousands.

Ted Gioia examines the birth of the blues at the start of the twentieth century, and follows some of the major (but often . He has recorded several CDs as a pianist and composer and is the author of five highly regarded books on jazz and roots music. He lives in Plano, Texas.

Ted Gioia examines the birth of the blues at the start of the twentieth century, and follows some of the major (but often little known) players through their lives.