Long Lost Blues: Popular Blues in America, 1850-1920

Contents

• Acknowledgments vi
• A Word About the Music Examples ix
• Introduction 1
• 1. The Popular Blues Industry 1912-1920 10
• The Birth of Popular Blues 10
• The Nature and Scope of the Early Popular Blues Industry 15
• The Development of the Popular Blues Industry 21
• Blues Performances in the Mainstream 27
• 2. The Identity and Idiom of Early Popular Blues 41
• The Main Influences: Folk Blues and Tin Pan Alley 41
• An Overview of Popular Blues Songs 44
• The Five Categories of Popular Blues Songs 53
• An Overview of Instrumental Blues 63
• Some Distinctive Components of the Popular Blues Idiom 80
• 3. Curing the Blues with the Blues 102
• Introduction 102
• Origins and Definitions of the Term "Blues" 103
• Musical Alleviation of the Blues 107
• Homeopathic and Allopathic Blues 113
• 4. The Blues of W. C. Handy 141
• Introduction 141
• Blues from the Memphis Period (1909-1917) 142
• Blues After the Move to New York (1917-1953) 177
• Conclusion 185
• 5. The Creativity of Early Southern Published Blues 196
• Introduction 196
• Southern Published Blues of 1912-1914 197
• Euday L. Bowman 209
• George W. Thomas 212
• Perry Bradford 217
• Southern Published Blues of 1915-1920 223
• 6. Published Proto-Blues and the Evolution of the Twelve-Bar Sequence 234
• Introduction 234
• Development of the Blues Song 235
• The Evolution of the Twelve-Bar Blues Sequence 242
• Conclusion 269
• Appendix: Titular Blues 1912-1915 279
• Major Works Consulted 291