The noted blues scholar Paul Oliver here examines the many different skeins of the blues form, relating them to other black traditions - musical and religious - and tracing the origin of the blues through the dense, many-colored warp and weft of influences and inspiration. He describes "the dozens," Christmas rituals, and the coded (as well as blatant) sexual imagery that has always been a vital element of every popular song tradition. With extensive source notes, photographs, a discography, and two indexes of song titles and singers, this book serves as a sound, serious, and entertaining...

The first world atlas ever compiled on vernacular architecture, this comprehensive work illustrates the variety and ingenuity of the world s vernacular building traditions from a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative approach, using over sixty world and regional maps.

Mapping such diverse aspects as materials and resources, technologies, structural systems, symbolism, forms and service systems on a cross-cultural and comparative basis, the Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World reveals the distribution, diversity and relationships of the world s...

In this innovatory new book the celebrated writer on the blues, Paul Oliver, rediscovers the wealth of neglected vocal traditions issued on Race records. When blues first reached a large audience it was through the 'Race records' issued specifically for black purchasers in the 1920s. Blues as performed on the professional stage and, later, folk blues from the South have been extensively discussed by many writers. Paul Oliver shows that this emphasis has drawn attention away from the other important vocal traditions also available on Race records: the songs of Southern rural dances, the comic...

This is a new, thoroughly revised edition of Paul Oliver's classic study of the blues. First published in 1960, this remarkable book has not been superseded and its reappearance will be welcomed by all who wish to understand the complexity of meaning in the blues and the experiences which they expressed.

This book combines three influential and much-quoted books Savannah Syncopators; Blacks, Whites and Blues and Recording the Blues, updated with additional new essays, which collectively confront the problem of how, when and from where the blues emerged and developed. It emphasizes the significance of the African heritage, the mutuality of much white and black music and the role of recording in consolidating the blues. Redressing some of the misconceptions that persist in writing on African-American music, it will be essential reading for all enthusiasts of blues, jazz and country music.