- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press; 1 edition (November 15, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1572334312
- ISBN-13: 978-1572334311
“Pearson has collected a gold mine of compelling tales, organized them
with convincing logic, and introduced them with the kind of penetrating
insight and professional modesty that any blues scholar might do well to
emulate. This is a terrific book—one I know I’ll use in my own
teaching.” —Adam Gussow, author of Seems Like Murder Here: Southern
Violence and the Blues TraditionJook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues
Storytellers is what author and compiler Barry Lee Pearson calls a
“blues quilt.” These blues stories, collected by Pearson for thirty
years, are told in the blues musicians’ own words. The author
interviewed over one hundred musicians, recording and transcribing their
stories. These are stories from well-known musicians such as John Lee
Hooker, Koko Taylor, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and Little Milton, and
from more obscure artists such as Big Luck Carter, Henry Dorsey, Joseph
Savage, and J. T. Adams. Pearson provides an introduction to the world
of the blues and the genre of blues stories as well as brief biographies
of the musicians. Divided into five sections—Blues Talk, Living the
Blues, Learning the Blues, Working the Blues, and The Last Word—the book
provides an overview of the inner workings of the blues tradition from
the artist’s point of view. Wordsmiths by trade, the storytellers bring
to their tales qualities also found in blues song performance and
philosophical perspectives characteristic of the blues tradition such as
improvisation, ironic humor, ambivalence, and a life-affirming sense of
hope in the face of adversity. Pitched somewhere between story and
song, this remarkable chorus of voices provides concrete illustrations
of what it means to live the blues, to feel the blues, and to play the
blues. Taken together, these artists provide a collective history of one
of America’s most influential art forms. Blues fans and those
interested in African American music, folklore, American music history,
popular culture, and southern history will want to read Jook Right On:
Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers.Barry Lee Pearson is professor of
English and American studies at the University of Maryland. He is the
coauthor of Robert Johnson: Lost and Found, Virginia Piedmont Blues: The
Lives and Art of Two Virginia Bluesmen, “Sounds So Good to Me”: The
Bluesman’s Story, and more than a hundred articles. In 1993 he was
nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for Roots of
Rhythm and Blues: A Tribute to the Robert Johnson Era.
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