The Story of the Blues

Introduction -- 6 Long Hot Summer Days: The background of Afro-American music in the meeting of cultures after the Civil War -- 8 Cottonfield Hollers: Origins of blues in work songs, field hollers and the ballads of the songsters -- 17 Down The Dirt Roads: Traditions of the plantations around the Mississippi Delta and emergent blues techniques -- 26 Froggy Bottom to Buckhead: Blues singers of Texas, Alabama and Georgia; development of guitar and piano music -- 36 Bed Slats An' All: String, washboard and jug bands; Beale Street blues and the medicine show entertaiiners -- 47 Rabbit Foot And Toby Time: Minstrel and tent shows, vaudeville theatre circuits and the women 'classic blues' singers -- 58 Struttin' That Thing: Negro migrations in the Jazz Era; piano music in the South, in Chicago and Detroit -- 73 Walking The Basses: Urban blues and boogie-woogie of St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville and the Mid-Western cities -- 85 Hard Time Everywhere: Blues and the record industry; themes and personalities of the post-depression years -- 95 Chicago Breakdown: Blues bands of Chicago's South and West Sides in the 'thirties and 'forties -- 105 Back To Mississippi: The continuity of the rural blues tradition in Mississippi before the Second World War -- 116 Travellin' Men: Guitar rags and harmonica breakdowns in the Eastern States, the Carolinas and Tennessee -- 125 The Number One Scab: Barrelhouse piano; the effects of recording; Kansas City blues and the migration to the West Coast -- 135 King Biscuit Time: Blues on the radio networks; post-war blues centres of the South and the urban North -- 146 Blues And Trouble: Rhythm and blues; the rise of modern styles; blues and the international audience -- 157 Music Examples -- 169 Periodicals, Books, Records -- 171