How Blues Evolved
An Illustrated History of the genre that
gave us jazz, rock & roll, pop and rock music.
By Paul Merry
Did you know that last year, 2012, marked the 100th anniversary of the first blues sheet music ever published? Unless you are a blues historian, you probably didn’t, because this significant milestone passed by totally unreported in the mainstream media, or it did in Britain, where this blog comes from.
Being a blues fan from way back, I have read and watched my fair share of blues histories. But, really, don’t they just tell us what we already know? Many even feed us wrong information, such as delta blues started with Charlie Patton, which it didn’t, talented as Charlie was.
Unable to find a blues history that satisfied my curiosity, I decided a few years ago to research and write a magazine article exploring the untold story of this irresistible music. Its publication would coincide with last year’s blues centenary. During my quest, I came across hundreds of brilliant books, academic papers and websites which explained fragments of blues’ mysterious evolution, often in great depth. But I found nothing that put the jigsaw pieces together to present the complete picture.
When 2012 came around, I felt I had created a blues history that would finally tell the untold story. But even after cutting the piece to shreds, it was still over 5,000 words, which was way too long for publication. Yet, 5,000 words hardly scratched the surface. There was no way blues' interweaving and surprising history could be condensed into one humble magazine article. So much enthralling information would have to be cut out. Better to make use of all the research I had collected and expand the story into a fully-blown e-book.
This had just been done when I realized how much more interesting the book would be if I included photographs. This task, too, is almost finished and my illustrated history of the blues will be available in June 2013 on Amazon’s Kindle, well in time for the 100th anniversary of the first recorded blues, which took place in 1914.
The eBook is called How Blues Evolved and Chapter 1, Remorse For A Bad Life, explains where the term ‘blues’ came from and the evolution of the word ‘blues’ in print.
Chapter 2, America’s First Slaves, sheds light on how the music of Muslim slave traders influenced the African captives on their way to America.
Below are the names of the other chapters to give you an idea of the content of How Blues Evolved.
Check out the YouTube link on Chapter 40 to hear the exquisite Lonnie Johnson playing blues guitar in 1939.
Chapter 3. The First Public Portrayal Of Slave Music.
Chapter 4. The English Comedian Who Sparked The Blues
Chapter 5. Early Musical Improvisation
Chapter 6. America’s First Pop Star
Chapter 7. America’s First Syncopated Pop Song
Chapter 8. The First Blues Watershed
Chapter 9. The Birth Of Minstrelsy
Chapter 10. A Vulgar Melody In A Remote Key
Chapter 11. America At War
Chapter 12. The End Of Slavery
Chapter 14. Syncopation And Ragged Time
Chapter 15. The First Ragtime Song
Chapter 16. A Nineteenth Century Hint Of The Blues To Come
Chapter 17. The Birth Of Blues Guitar
Chapter 18. The Music That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Chapter 19. The Second Blues Water Shed
Chapter 20. Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
Chapter 21. The Bluesman Who Taught Charlie Patton
Chapter 22. Lead Belly And The Birth Of Boogie Guitar
Chapter 23. From The Mouth Of A Ventriloquist’s Dummy
Chapter 24. The Father Of The Blues
Chapter 25. The First Published Blues
Chapter 26. The First Published Blues With Vocals
Chapter 27. The First Recorded Blues
Chapter 28. The First Recorded Blues With Vocals
Chapter 29. The First African-American Recorded Blues
Chapter 30. Spread Yo’ Stuff
Chapter 31. Girl Power
Chapter 32. A Blues Diva Discovers The Blues Guitar
Chapter 33. Here Come The Boys
Chapter 34. The First Improvised Blues Solo
Chapter 35. The Peak Before The Trough
Chapter 36. Depression Blues
Chapter 37. The Guitar Goes Electric
Chapter 38. The Birth Of Electric Blues
Chapter 39. The Original Chicago Blues
Chapter 41.The Boy Can Play
Chapter 42. The Blues Goes To War
Chapter 43.Wartime Electric Blues
Chapter 44. The Blues Gets Rhythm
Chapter 45.The Blues Had A Baby.
Please leave me a message if you’d like to know exactly when the book is released.
