Preachin' the Blues: The Life and Times of Son House
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.85 (844 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0195395573 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-10-08 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Five Stars mhayes bought as a bday present and they loved it. If only he stayed sober. Recently, the State of Mississippi installed an extensive set of historic markers throughout the State. It is called the Mississippi Blues Trail. By traveling around the State, and with a good guide book, one can get a sense of the importance of Mississippi in the development of Blues and Rock & Roll in the early to mid twentieth century. The area north of Clarksdale to Memphis was Son House's stomping grounds. That area, roughly ca. "Daniel Beaumont's fine biography of Son House" according to R. Weinstock. I finished reading the Son House biography, "Preachin' the Blues: The Life and Times of Son House" by Daniel Beaumont and while I intend to do a lengthier review, I thought it would serve to state my brief impressions. He makes use of much of the existing published material as well as some unpublished material such as stuff he has derived from the late Stephen Calt's research. Thankfully the book is evenly written and lacks the nast
And even in an iTunes age, when Son House's Levee Camp Moan can be found with a click instead of a drive to Rochester, it's still a journey with rich rewards." --Charles R. "Beaumont's work shines especially in his depiction of House's nonrecording years the definitive portrait of this unjustly neglected lion of American Music." --Library Journal (starred review) "Beaumont offers vivid portraits of the pre-WWII blues scene and the mid-1960s efforts of white ethnomusicologists to rediscover and promote blues singers." --Alan Moores, Booklist "Daniel Beaumont, who teaches Arabic language and literature a
He also worked as chief observer on a rain making project in Libya and he has been on the historic "King Biscuit Time" blues radio show.. He produced and directed "So Much Truth" a documentary about bluesman Joe Beard. Daniel Beaumont teaches courses on Arabic language and literature and the blues at the University of Rochester.
So begins Preachin' the Blues, the biography of American blues signer and guitarist Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. The landscape of Son House's life and the vicissitudes he endured make for an absorbing narrative, threaded through with a tension between House's religious beliefs and his spells of commitment to a lifestyle that implicitly rejected it. In the course of his research Beaumont has unearthed not only connections among the many scattered facts and fictions but new information about a rumoured murder in Mississippi, and a charge of manslaughter on Long Island - incidents which bring tragic light upon House's lifelong struggles and self-imposed disappearance, and give trenchant meaning to the moving music of this early blues legend.. Author Daniel Beaumont offers a chronology/topography of House's youth, taking into account evidence that conflicts sharply with the well-worn fable, and he illuminates the obscurity of House's two decades in Rochester, NY between his departure from Mississippi in the 1940s and his "rediscovery" by members of the Folk Revival Movement in 1964. Beaumont gives a detailed and perceptive account of House's primary musical legacy: his recordings for Paramount in 1930 and for the Library of Congress in 1941-42. In June of 1964, three young, white blues fans set out from New