The noted blues scholar Paul Oliver here examines the many different skeins of the blues form, relating them to other black traditions - musical and religious - and tracing the origin of the blues through the dense, many-coloured warp and weft of influences and inspiration. He describes "the dozens," Christmas rituals, and the coded (as well as blatant) sexual imagery that has always been a vital element of every popular song tradition. With extensive source notes, photographs, a discography, and two indexes of song titles and singers, this book serves as a sound, serious, and entertaining guide to the blues heritage that has vitalised so much of the world's musical culture

PAUL OLIVER is the author of several books on the blues, including Blues Off The Record.

"The blues represents the most richly documented folk music in history... Oliver's third major book on blues is a remarkable piece of scholarship, almost completely persuasive in its argument, meticulous in its research detail, and a fair-sized anthology to boot ... Oliver is an invaluable guide, especially in a decade when the blues has been massively mixed with the mainstream of Western popular music." - DEREK JEWELL, Sunday Times

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