origins of the origin-al blues

Behold your wordsmith’s first contribution to The Syncopated Times, a thoroughly charming monthly periodical out of Utica, New York. (“Syncopate Close to Home!”) The April issue contains my review of The Original Blues: The Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville, by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff. The book is the culminating volume of an astounding trilogy on the history of African American music and show business between the Civil War and the Great Depression. Also check out, within the same volume’s leaves, my pal Colin Hancock’s piece, “What Did Buddy Bolden’s Band Sound Like?“

[public domain image of Bert Williams and George Walker freely appropriated!]