Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta [Paperback] Review

Palmer's love of the blues shines through in this exceptional book. He's not interested in showing off his knowledge of the form (although that knowledge is exceptional); he's interested in illuminating for the readerthe roots of a great indigenous art form and how that form developed in the20th century. In that effort, he succeeds masterfully.
A fine earlysection explores how the music that we call the blues was seeded in N.America by African music. That chapter is a mini-history lesson in itself;Palmer shows how the music of slaves from W. Africa was viewed assubversive and dangerous by whites in the new land.
The remainder of thebook is chock full of portraits of the heroes of early blues in theMississippi Delta, from Charley Patton to Son House to Robert Johnson toLittle Walter to Muddy Waters and beyond. Palmer shows how these mendeveloped a music that grew directly out of the soil of the Delta, makingdo with the instruments they had and often living itinerant lives, movingfrom tiny town to tiny town to play dances and juke joints to keep themusic alive.
The book also describes the historic migration ofAfrican-Americans from the Deep South to the industrial cities of theNorth, most importantly, of course, Chicago, where the musicianstransformed the blues again, creating the electrified sounds that exertedsuch a powerful influence on white rock musicians from London to Liverpoolto La Jolla, California.
Palmer has given us a great work with "DeepBlues," one that should be read by students of music and socialhistory alike. It deserves a prominent place on the bookshelf of anyserious lover of music.

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