Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Bourdon, Blue Notes, and Pentatonism in the Blues: An Africanist Perspective -- 2. "They Cert'ly Sound Good to Me": Sheet Music, Southern Vaudeville, and the Commercial Ascendancy of the Blues -- 3. Abbe Niles, Blues Advocate -- 4. The Hands of Blues Guitaritsts -- 5. From Bumble Bee Slim to Black Boy Shine: Nicknames of Blues Singers -- 6. Preachin' the Blues: A Textual Linguistic Analysis of Son House's "Dry Spell Blues" -- 7. Some Ramblings on Robert Johnson's Mind: Critical Analysis and Aesthetic Value in Delta Blues -- 8. "Guess These People Wonder What I'm Singing": Quotation and Reference in Ella Fitzgerald's "St. Louis Blues" -- 9. Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: A Decade of Disillusion in Black Blues and Gospel Song -- 10. Houston Creoles and Zydeco: The Emergence of an African American Urban Popular Style -- Contributors -- Index.