In the first part of his two-part essay in the redesigned Sewanee Review, John Jeremiah Sullivan examines the hazy, complicated roots of the Blues, going deep into Early Blues before, where he finds forgotten African-American journalist and performer Columbus Bragg, the first person to describe a song as a “blues song,” and another wrinkle in the Blues’ tangled origins.
The Curses: Part I
John Jeremiah Sullivan | The Sewanee Review | January 1, 2017 | 7,008 words
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