Charters, Samuel B.: The Country Blues

Charters, Samuel B.: The Country Blues

Published: 1975 Da Capo Press Press, 288 pages
ISBN 0-306-80014-4

The first book-length study of the country blues, The Country Blues is really more a collection of related essays than a comprehensive treatment of the subject. The chapters cover such subjects as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leroy Carr, field recording, medicine shows, Memphis jug bands, records in the Columbia 14000 series, and "the Bluebird beat". Illustrated, with an index.

Pros: Samuel Charters is a good writer and the book is a pleasure to read. The Country Blues was originally published in 1959, so it is as much an historical document as it is a work of history. Readers with some knowledge of the current state of blues historiography will be fascinated both by how much was known and by how much was still unknown in 1959.

Cons: Since The country Blues was written in 1959 and has not been substantially revised, it is best that neophytes not read it as an introduction to the country blues. There are simply too many "facts" that are now known to be untrue. Charters was not afraid to let his opinions show in this book. He dislikes hokum and most songs with overtly sexual topics, thinks Big Bill Broonzy's Paramount records are substandard, and that the records released on the Columbia 14000 series (including Peg Leg Howell, Barbecue Bob, and the Dallas String Band) are usually "boring". Charters' bad opinion of the blues coming out of chicago in the late 1930s and his dismissive label of that music - "the Bluebird beat" - has been especially pernicious, steering several generations of listeners away from some very good music.