BLUES

Wald sees blues less as a style than as a broad musical tradition within a constantly evolving pop culture. He traces its roots in w ork and praise songs, and shows how it was transformed by such professional performers as W. C. Handy, who first popularized the blu es a century ago. He follows its evolution from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith through Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix/ identifies the impact of rural field recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton and others/ explores the role of blues in the development of bot h countr...[Read more]