Critical Compendium » In Search of the Blues, by Marybeth Hamilton
In Search of the Blues, by Marybeth Hamilton

“In Search of the Blues” is not about the blues, or the people who made the blues. It’s about people who made the dark side of blues music into what popular mythology calls “the Delta blues.” Those people aren’t singers or players but folk song scholars and record collectors. So Marybeth Hamilton believes. She organizes her book around the personal stories of five people or groups of people. The first three — Howard Odum, Dorothy Scarborough, and John and Alan Lomax — are scholars. The last two groups — Frederic Ramsey, Charles Edward Smith and William Russell, followed by James McKune and the acolytes called the Blues Mafia — are collectors. Most of the scholars are older. The collectors are more obsessed.” Read the review at the New York Times.

Filed under: History, Nonfiction | Posted 02.27.08 | Comments:


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An interview with Steve LeVine, author of The Oil and the Glory

"Big Oil is dying . . . The jury is out on whether the average consumer will be affected. The oil companies say with some justification that the state-owned companies don’t produce oil and natural gas as well as they – Big Oil – can. They say that means less and less supply – or at least not as much supply as might be expected – from these countries in the coming years. That’s important, especially since tight global supplies are one reason for $95-a-barrel oil right now." [ Read the rest of the interview ]



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