The history of American music is shot through with paradox and strange synergies. In no form is this more true than in American blues music. Blues itself is a fusion of black Gospel, Scots-Irish music from the mountains of Appalachia, field-hollers and work songs, and something else — something indefinable — that made it unique. The musicians who birthed this musical form into the world predominately lived in the American South, were predominately black, and were mostly confined to a small geographical area in or near the Mississippi Delta.
Now, arguments abound as to what constitutes "blues" and what doesn't. Is jazz a musical form unique to itself, or is it a form of the blues? How about the traditional music of Appalachia which in time gave birth to the modern "country music" form? The lineage of rock 'n' roll is unambiguous, at least: rock 'n' roll is the direct descendant of the blues (and some would say it is simply a modern reinterpretation of the classic blues form). Blues, especially the Delta blues, is the taproot of American popular music in the twentieth century.
Forests have been felled to produce paper for the shelves of books written about blues music. This trend began almost immediately, but the famous Alan Lomax was the first to make it a scholarly pursuit. And over the years, musical historians, ethnologists, sociologists, and other academics have explored every nook and cranny of blues as a musical form and as a cultural phenomenon. So the question arises: can yet another book on the Delta blues really present any new information?
Ted Gioia, who previously chronicled the history of American Jazz (yet another form of the blues), has taken on this challenge in his book Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music. Gioia decided to approach history in the form of biography; his book presents the history of the Delta blues as the history of Delta blues musicians. All the familiar names are there: Robert Johnson (inevitably), Son House, Tommy Johnson, Charlie Patton, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt. Gioia tells their stories with an eye towards making each a link in the great chain of the blues leading from the early 1900s until the current day.
Gioia also focuses on what might be called the prototypical Delta blues musician: the solo guitarist, raised in poverty in the racist south, who escapes into the more racially-tolerant North to found a musical phenomenon. Gioia has decided not to debunk the old "bluesman at the crossroads" cliche so much as to explain it and give it some depth. And in this he does a credible job - none of the mini-biographies in Gioia's book will give aficionados much new information, but casual fans may find their appreciation of the musical form deepened through these biographical snapshots.
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