Author Craig Awmiller takes readers on a journey that begins on one continent and evolves onto another. The blues began in Africa. In West Africa, there were traveling musicians and storytellers who played an instrument similar to the banjo. These entertainers were knows as “griots.”
Between 1505 and 1870, ships from Europe began arriving on the west coast of Africa, taking approximately 10 million Africans to the Americas in the largest forced migration. As a way to cope, the griots invented new songs to describe their capture into slavery and the brutal oppression they faced. The songs then evolved on the plantation as a way to retain something from the African culture. The songs provided a creative outlet from the backbreaking work of the cotton fields.
After the end of the U.S. Civil War and of slavery, African American entertainers began performing for black audiences. One of the earliest stars was ragtime pianist and composer Scott Joplin. One of his most famous pieces was called “The Entertainer.” Joplin and many others would become part of the developing musical scene, where it became possible for African Americans to make a living by performing music. The guitar became an important instrument in the development of the blues – because it was portable and most musicians could afford one.
One of the earliest blues musicians was Charley Patton, born in 1891 in Bolton, Mississippi. Music allowed him to escape a life of sharecropping, where one could never get ahead. The author wrote, “When playing the blues, Patton found, you could say all the things you felt no matter what the rich and privileged landowner might think. Through the blues, he found, he could be free.”
In the United States, the blues began and developed in the Mississippi Delta. That is the flat land along the Mississippi River from the Bootheel of Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. This is known as the delta or folk blues. Meanwhile, the city blues developed in urban areas like Chicago. In Chicago, Muddy Waters played electric guitars and used amplifiers in the 1950s and 1960s. He performed music that would inspire blues and rock ‘n’ roll musicians, such as The Beatles, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones.
Before The Rolling Stones formed, the two main members had known each other as young students growing up, but they were from different backgrounds. Mick Jagger from a middle-class family in London was a promising student at the London School of Economics. Keith Richard came from a working class home and lived in a tough neighborhood. He was expelled from a technical school for truancy. His one solace in life was playing the guitar. “This seemed, to all those around him, to be a waste of time since they thought he couldn’t get steady work just playing the guitar.”
However, he did find steady work playing the guitar. And they would become the driving force of The Rolling Stones, offering a unique blend of blues and rock ‘n’ roll music.
In some cases, the blues have been described as a type of antidote for an upbeat, falsely cheery culture. “Because of their great capacity for truth telling, the blues have long been a form used by artists to examine and critique the society in which they live.”
In the book, This House On Fire: The Story Of The Blues, the author takes a look at the work of these blues musicians:
- Charley Patton
- Blind Lemon Jefferson
- Robert Johnson
- Louis Armstrong
- Gertrude “Ma” Rainey
- Bessie Smith
- Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter
- Billie Holiday
- McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield
- The Rolling Stones
- Eric Clapton
- Sam “Lightnin” Hopkins and John Lee Hooker
- Riley “B.B.” King
- Etta James
- Buddy Guy
- Robert Cray
For B.B. King, he was born in 1925 and named his guitar Lucille after a fight broke out in a dance hall. The other men were fighting over a woman named Lucille and knocked over a kerosene heater. After leaving the building, he rushed back in to rescue his guitar, which he then named Lucille.
In 1988, B.B. King recorded a song with the rock band U2 on the compact disc titled “Rattle and Hum.” He also runs a blues club and restaurant on the famous Beale Street in Memphis, long known for its blues music.
In regard to his research, writing and love of the blues, author and musician Craig Awmiller has created a historical legacy where the blues will never fade. The blues have always been more than a musical style. It’s a way to communicate, and it’s a way to transcend pain. It’s a way to find a higher self.
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Reviewed by Susan Vollmer
Author of Legends, Leaders, Legacies
