A01=Kimberly Mack
African American music history
African American storytelling traditions
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Alice Walker
American folklore and race
Amy Winehouse
art and racial politics
authenticity in blues
authenticity versus performance
Author_Kimberly Mack
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Bessie Smith
Big Mama Thornton
Black feminist music theory
blues and social justice
blues as cultural critique
blues as political expression
blues music
blues performance
blues persona
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AVC
Category=AVGC6
Category=AVGK
Category=AVLA
Category=AVLP
Category=DS
Category=DSB
Category=DSRC
Category=HPX
Category=JBCC1
Category=JFCA
Category=QDX
contemporary blues revival
COP=United States
creative freedom in Black art
crossroads legend
cultural resistance through art
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Delta blues
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gender and musical power
gender and performance studies
historical memory in music
identity construction in American art
influence of blues on modern music
intersection of music and literature
intertextuality in music and fiction
invention of musical myths
Jack White
Language_English
legacy of blues women
literary interpretations of sound
literary representations of musicians
Ma Rainey
Mississippi Delta folklore
music and mythmaking
music and the Black experience
music as social commentary
musical self-invention
musicians as authors of identity
myth of the devil's bargain
narrative voice in performance
PA=Available
performance and persona
performance theory and the blues
performative autobiography
postmodern storytelling in music
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
race and authenticity narratives
racial identity in popular music
racialized music narratives
reclaiming artistic agency
reimagining musical identity
reinvention of the blues tradition
representation in American culture
rewriting blues history
Rhiannon Giddens
self-mythologizing musicians
Sherman Alexie
softlaunch
sonic autobiography
Southern music culture
storytelling in music
Walter Mosley
women in blues history
Product details
- ISBN 9781625345509
- Weight: 424g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 18 Dec 2020
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity, and the violent stereotypes evoked by legendary blues "bad men" like Stagger Lee undergird the persistent racial myths surrounding "authentic" blues expression. Fictional Blues unpacks the figure of the American blues performer, moving from early singers such as Ma Rainey and Big Mama Thornton to contemporary musicians such as Amy Winehouse, Rhiannon Giddens, and Jack White to reveal that blues makers have long used their songs, performances, interviews, and writings to invent personas that resist racial, social, economic, and gendered oppression.
Using examples of fictional and real-life blues artists culled from popular music and literary works from writers such as Walter Mosley, Alice Walker, and Sherman Alexie, Kimberly Mack demonstrates that the stories blues musicians construct about their lives (however factually slippery) are inextricably linked to the "primary story" of the narrative blues tradition, in which autobiography fuels musicians' reclamation of power and agency.
Kimberly Mack is assistant professor of African American literature at the University of Toledo.
