Chasin' That Devil Music; Searching for The Blues

San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman Books, 1998. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Very Good. CD is NOT PRESENT. xv, [1], 271, [1] pages. Includes Foreword, Editor's Introduction, Prologue: King Solomon Hill; Initial Inquiries and Encounters; Tips, Leads, and Documents; Witnesses; H.C. Speir; Retrospectives; and Epilogue. Also includes Knocking on Doors for 78s: Record Grades; The Immortal Charlie Patton; Country Blues and Gospel Pioneers; Memphis City Directory Blues; A Quick Ramble and more. Also contains One Last Walk up King Solomon Hill, Afterword, References, List of 78 rpm Record Issues Cited, Index to 78s, List of Interviews Cited, Reissues, Index of Names, CD Liner Notes, and about the Author and Editor. This book by expert blues scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow reveals the stories of the great blues pioneers--many in their own words. Based on personal interviews, public records, and even door-to-door canvassing, Wardlow's lively writings reflect the unique excitement of blues search-and-discovery. He paints colorful portraits of both legends and unknowns of the 1920s, '30s, and beyond who helped shape the music: Charlie Patton, Ishmon Bracey, Bukka White, Tommy Johnson, The Real Willie Brown, Skip James, and dozens more. Wardlow has added three new articles especially for this book. "Bukka White: From Aberdeen to Parchman" introduces the use of court documents to blues research. "Blind Roosevelt Graves" was a piece that he had long wished to write, and it was prepared with its context with this book in mind. "Stop, Look, and Listen at the Cross Road" is a commentary asking the blues fan to entertain another interpretation of the crossroads legend. Gayle Dean Wardlow (born August 31, 1940) is an American historian of the blues. He is particularly associated with research into the lives of the musicians Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson and the historical development of the Delta blues, on which he is a leading authority. In his teens he began collecting Roy Acuff 78s. He originally began collecting blues records so as to exchange them for Acuff's. However, by about 1960 he had started collecting blues records for their own sake, and realized that very little biographical information existed on the musicians who had created them. By 1963, Wardlow had begun researching a book on Delta blues musicians, mainly by making inquiries in black neighborhoods, recording oral histories, anecdotes, songs, and remembrances. He interviewed Ishmon Bracey, Charlie Patton's widow, and blues talent broker H. C. Speir, and a few years later uncovered Robert Johnson's death certificate. Hayes McMullan's musical talents were unearthed following a chance encounter in 1967 between Wardlow and McMullan. Wardlow transcribed the songs and penned the sleevenotes for the 2017 CD release of McMullan's Everyday Seem Like Murder Here, issued over 30 years after McMullan's death. In the process of his overall research work, Wardlow became a leading authority on country blues. He also amassed the world's largest and most valuable collection of pre-war blues records, many of which are now unique. Wardlow has published many articles on blues history and the book Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues, which was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006 as a classic of blues literature. In 2019 Wardlow co-authored, with Bruce Conforth, the Robert Johnson biography, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, which has been called "the definitive Robert Johnson biography". The book won the 2020 Penderyn Prize for being the best music book of any type for 2019. He has worked as an investigative and sports journalist, serving as sports information director at the University of West Alabama and the University of Alabama. He has also been a journalism professor at various universities. Edward Komara (Crane Librarian) has directed the Julia Crane Memorial Library since 2001. In addition to supervising library services and providing research assistance to students and faculty, he also teaches music research methods, and he gives lectures about American music including blues and jazz. Komara holds degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo (M.A., Music History; M.L.S., Library and Information Science). Previously he served as the Music Librarian/Blues Archivist at the University of Mississippi (1993-2001). He is a member of the Music Library Association, the American Musicological Society, and the Blues Foundation (Memphis TN). An authority on American blues, he has published several books including 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own, The Road to Robert Johnson and the two-volume Encyclopedia of the Blues. Chief among the honors awarded to him for his scholarship are the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities (2011) and the Music Library Association's Richard S. Hill Award (2009).