The devil is the most charismatic and important figure in the
blues tradition. He's not just the music's namesake ("the devil's
music"), but a shadowy presence who haunts an imagined Mississippi
crossroads where, it is claimed, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson traded
away his soul in exchange for extraordinary prowess on the guitar. Yet,
as scholar and musician Adam Gussow argues, there is much more to the
story of the devil and the blues than these cliched understandings.
In
this groundbreaking study, Gussow takes the full measure of the devil's
presence. Working from original transcriptions of more than 125
recordings released during the past ninety years, Gussow explores the
varied uses to which black southern blues people have put this
trouble-sowing, love-wrecking, but also empowering figure. The book
culminates with a bold reinterpretation of Johnson's music and a
provocative investigation of the way in which the citizens of
Clarksdale, Mississippi, managed to rebrand a commercial hub as "the
crossroads" in 1999, claiming Johnson and the devil as their own.
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