This companion volume to an upcoming PBS series on the southern roots of
American music, drafted by a writer for the show (Wald) and its
director (Junkerman), is a particularly varied and moving example of its
genre. This probably has to do with the subject: it’s hard to be dull
when you’re describing the lives, memories, and music (country, blues,
rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, and zydeco, among others) of several hundred
performers, and even harder when you rely, as the book does, largely on
the frank and salty words of those performers. Following the Mississippi
downstream turns out to be a particularly useful conceit: because the
river touches so much of the American heartland, almost every kind of
popular music is being performed along its length. Many unique musical
forms, of course, including jazz and the blues, have a history
intimately entwined with the river. Ranging from profiles of
little-known but durable musicians to those with a regional or national
profile (John Hartford, Fontella Bass, Rufus Thomas, Little Milton, Irma
Thomas), the book offers both an engaging overview of modern American
music as it is being created and performed in small Southern towns and
cities, and a fascinating glimpse of the ways in which American music
continues to reflect and to shape American life. (color and b&w
photos, not seen)
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