Barrelhouse Blues: Location Recording and the Early Traditions of the Blues

by Paul Oliver

Overview

In the 1920s, Southern record companies ventured to cities like Dallas, Atlanta, and New Orleans, where they set up primitive recording equipment in makeshift studios. They brought in street singers, medicine show performers, pianists from the juke joints and barrelhouses. The music that circulated through Southern work camps, prison farms, and vaudeville shows would be lost to us if it hadn't been captured on location by these performers and recorders.

Eminent blues historian Paul Oliver uncovers these folk traditions and the circumstances under which they were recorded, rescuing the forefathers of the blues who were lost before they even had a chance to be heard. A careful excavation of the earliest recordings of the blues by one of its foremost experts, Barrelhouse Blues expands our definition of that most American style of music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465008810
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/25/2009
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Paul Oliver is an eminent writer on the history of the blues. From an early age he collected blues records and books on the blues, publishing his first article in Jazz Journal in 1951. Since that time he has published dozens of books on the history of the blues and blues music, including Conversations with the Blues, The Story of the Blues, and Blues Fell this Morning. He lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Seeking Seculars 9

Chapter 2 Travelin' Men 23

Chapter 3 Songsters of the South 37

Chapter 4 Long Lonesome Blues 53

Chapter 5 Women's Trouble Blues 69

Chapter 6 Country Breakdown 85

Chapter 7 Times Tight Like That 109

Chapter 8 On the Road Again 127

Chapter 9 Second Thoughts on Seculars 145

Chapter 10 Locke's Questions 159

Coda Post Proto-Blues 171

Acknowledgments 173

Notes 177

Discography of Cited Titles 185

Bibliography 195

List of Illustrations 201

Index of Names 207

Subject Index 213

Editorial Reviews

The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Detailed and deeply felt, Barrelhouse Blues is quite the education.”

Examiner.com
“Oliver's research is deep and his opinions raise questions, but his is a fine book for any blues fan yearning to learn about its origins.

From the Publisher