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....

Jook 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...