Topic: From Today's Times Book Review-In Search of the Blues

[Mr.OMuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/books/review/Marsh-t.html?em&ex=1203915600&en=b79f954bfc78ca9a&ei=5087%0A

HIDE! The deconstructionists are coming! The deconstructionists are coming! Next will be an army of 9 year old Korean girls who can play the blues better than any of us can even dream of doing!

[uncle bud]

Well, we certainly know how Dave feels about the book. 

One of my favourite bits from the review was the bio:

Dave Marsh is writing a book about why "American Idol" is evil.

[CF]

Yeah I saw that too . . . love it!
I've mentioned this before but I had a 'This Machine Kills American Idol' sticker on my guitar for a while. 

[doctorpep]

There already is an army of 9 year old Korean girls who can play the Blues better than Blind Willie McTell. However, lyrics like "Oh, Lord, they got me workin' so hard at the math & English tutorin' center!" aren't doing it for me.

[Doc White]

[To the perspective of Leadbelly, Lomax?s discovery and near chattel, she devotes one paragraph.]
I read the book and quite enjoyed it. It is a critique on the forces behind the music reaching a white audience and seeks to explain why blues has become essentially a music for a white audience. It is not an overview of the artistic merits of the music or a strictly historical narrative. The problem with Dave Marsh's criticism of the book is that it is littered with observations like the one above and it is just not true. There are pages devoted to the relationship between John Lomax and Leadbelly.

[oddenda]

This book will put the cat among the pigeons!Revenge on W.E.?

Peter B.