Ramblin' on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues

Contents

Contents Introduction 1 david evans 1 Bourdon, Blue Notes, and Pentatonism in the Blues: An Africanist Perspective 11 gerhard kubik 2 “They Cert’ly Sound Good to Me”: Sheet Music, Southern Vaudeville, and the Commercial Ascendancy of the Blues 49 lynn abbott and doug seroff 3 Abbe Niles, Blues Advocate 105 elliott s. hurwitt 4 The Hands of Blues Guitarists 152 andrew m. cohen 5 From Bumble Bee Slim to Black Boy Shine: Nicknames of Blues Singers 179 david evans 6 Preachin’ the Blues: A Textual Linguistic Analysis of Son House’s “Dry Spell Blues” 222 luigi monge 7 Some Ramblings on Robert Johnson’s Mind: Critical Analysis and Aesthetic Value in Delta Blues 258 james bennighof 8 “Guess These People Wonder What I’m Singing”: Quotation and Reference in Ella Fitzgerald’s “St. Louis Blues” 281 katharine cartwright 9 Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: A Decade of Disillusion in Black Blues and Gospel Song 328 bob groom 10 Houston Creoles and Zydeco: The Emergence of an African American Urban Popular Style 350 john minton Contributors 399 Index 403 Ramblin’ on My Mind ...