Journeyman's road
Subtitle: modern blues lives from Faulkner's Mississippi to post-9/11 New York
By: Adam Gussow
Edition: 1st ed
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9781572335691
Subjects: Mister Satan, -- 1936-; Gussow, Adam; Blues musicians -- United States; Blues (Music) -- History and criticism; Blues (Music) in literature
Description: "Journeyman's Road offers a bold new vision of where the blues have been in the course of the twentieth century and what they have become at the dawn of the new millennium: a world music rippling with postmodern contradictions. Author Adam Gussow places blues literature in dialogue with the music that provokes it, articulating an American tradition." "At the heart of Gussow's story is his own streetside partnership with Harlem bluesman Sterling "Mr. Satan" Magee, a musical collaboration marked not just by a series of polarities - black and white, Mississippi and Princeton, hard-won mastery and youthful apprenticeship - but by creative energies that pushed beyond apparent differences to forge new dialogues and new sounds." "Undercutting familiar myths about the downhome sources of blues authenticity, Gussow celebrates New York's mongrel blues scene: the artists, the jam sessions, the venues, the street performers, and the eccentrics. Journeyman's Road offers a portrait of the New York subculture struggling with the legacy of 9/11 and healing itself with the blues."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [187]-188)
Table of contents: title: Walking the walk. Life with Mister Satan. Winter blues ; Sweet home Italia ; Playing the booze ; Taking it to the streets ; The New York blues scene. Requiem for an East Village juke-joint (part one) ; Requiem for an East Village juke-joint (part two) ; Amp love (part one) ; Amp love (part two) ; Amp love (part three) ; Big Apple blues : the New York scene ; I'm ready : a Chicago bluesman's New York tale ; Good luck kid ; Howl at the moon ; Real blues on Broadway ; Breakdowns and revivals. Been here and gone ; Playing from the heart ; A path with heart ; Lowdown blues and the holy spirit ; A great night in Harlem; title: Talking the talk. Sitting in ; Making your big move : the devil's guide to jam session etiquette ; Whose blues? Eight infuriating (or hope-inducing) half-truths about the modern blues scene ; Back to school. Is or ain't your blues like mine? A brief critical history of white blues literature ; Plaintive reiterations and meaningless strains : Faulkner's blues understandings. Blues literature and the proximity effect ; Pop, regional, homespun : Faulkner's blues education ; Representing the blues ; Where is the love? Racial violence, racial healing, and blues communities