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last updated: 11/20/07
library.reference@cmich.edu

BLUES AND GOSPEL MUSIC
Selective Resources in the CMU Libraries

Compiled by David Ginsburg.  For more information and/or reference assistance, please contact David Ginsburg (Email: david.ginsburg@cmich.edu, Phone: 989-774-1293) or ask at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Park Library (Phone: 774-3470). 

Harris, Sheldon. Blues Who's Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1979. 
REF ML 102 .B6 H3

Herzhaf, Gerard.  Encyclopedia of the Blues.  Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
REF  ML 102 .B6 H413 1997

Komara, Edward.  Encyclopedia of the Blues.  New York, Routledge, 2006.
REF ML 102 .B6 E53 2006

McNeil, W. K.  Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music. New York, Routledge, 2005
REF  ML 102 .G6 E63 2005

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Bogdanov, Vladimer.  All Music Guide to the Blues.  San Francisco, Backbeat Books, 2003.
REF  ML 156.4 B6 A45 2003

Cowley, John.  The New Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1991.
REF  ML 156.4 .B6 B6 1996

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Bastin, Bruce. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
ML 3521 .B39 1986

Barlow, William. "Looking Up at Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
ML 3521 .B36 1989

Broven, John. Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans. Gretna, LA.: Pelican Publishing Company, 1978.
ML 3561 .B63 B76 1978

Charters, Samuel Barclay. The Bluesmen: The Story and the Music of the Men Who Made the Blues. New York: Oak Publications, 1977.
ML 3561 .J3 C425

Cohodas, Nadine.  Spinning Blues Into Gold: the Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records.  New York, St. Martin's Press, 2000.
ML 405 .C64 2000

Evans, David. Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
ML 3521 .E9 1982

Keil, Charles. Urban Blues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
ML 3556 .K43

Lomax, Allan. The Land Where the Blues Began. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.
ML 3521 .L64 1993

Moore, Allan.  The Cambridge Companion To Blues and Gospel Music.  New York, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
MT 146 .C36 2002

Obrecht, Jas.  Rollin' and Tumblin': the Postwar Blues Guitarists.  San Francisco, Miller Freeman Books, 2000.
ML 199 .R65 2000

Oliver, Paul. Blues Fell this Morning: The Meaning of the Blues, 2nd rev.ed.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
ML 3521 .O42 1990

Oliver, Paul.  Conversation With the Blues, 2nd ed.  New York, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
ML 3521 .C55 1997

Oliver, Paul. The New Grove Gospel, Blues, and Jazz, with Spirituals and Ragtime, 1st American edition. New York: Norton, 1986.
ML 3556 .O456 1986

Oliver, Paul. Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
ML 3556 .O466 1984

Oliver Paul.  The Story of the Blues, new ed.  Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1998
ML 3521 .O46 1998

Oliver, Paul.  Yonder Comes the Blues: the Evolution of a Genre. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
ML 3521 .Y66 2001

O'Neal, Jim.  The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interviews From Living Blues Magazine.  New York, Routledge, 2002
ML 394 .V65 2002

Rijn, Guido van.  Roosevel's Blues:  African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR.  Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 1997
ML 3521 .V36 1997

Rijn, Guido van.  The Truman and Eisenhower Blues: Africa-American Blues and Gospel Songs, 1945-1960.  New York, Continuum, 2004.
ML 3521 .R56 2004

Rowe, Mike. Chicago Breakdown. London: Eddison Press, 1973.
ML 3556 .R7

Ryan, Marc.  Trumpet Records.  Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
ML 3792 .R9 2004

Shaw, Arnold. Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues. New York: Macmillan, 1978.
ML 3561 .B63 S53

Springer, Robert.  Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From.  Jackon, University Press of Mississippi, 2006.
ML 3521 .N63 2006

Titon, Jeff Todd. Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
ML 3521 .T58 1994

Tracy, Steven C.  Write Me A Few Lines: A Blues Reader.  Amhearst, University o Massachussetts Press, 1999.
ML 3521 .W75 1999

Wardlow, Gayle.  Chasin' That Devil Music.  San Francisco, Miller Freeman Books, 1998.
M 3521 .W37 1998

Waterman, Dick.  Between Midnight and Day: the Last Unpublshed Blues Archive.  New York, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003.
ML 3521 .W3 2003

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Allen, Ray. Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
ML 3187 .A44 1991

Broughton, Viv. Black Gospel: An Illustrated History of the Gospel Sound. Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press, 1985.
ML 3187 .B76 1985

Darden, Bob.  People Get Ready!:  A New History of Black Gospel Music.  New York, Continuum, 2004.
ML 3187 .D37 2004

Harris, Michael W. Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
ML 3187 .H37 1992

Heilbut, Anthony. The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times. New York: Limelight Editions, 1985.
ML 3187 .H44 1985

Lornell, Kip. Happy in the Service of the Lord: Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
ML 3187 .L67 1988

We''ll Understand it Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
ML 390 .W274 1992

Young, Alan.  Woke Me Up This Morning: Black Gospel Singers and the Gospel Life.  Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 1997.
ML 394 .Y68 1997

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Albertson, Chris.  Bessie.  Rev.and exp. ed. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003.
ML 420 .S667 A7

Brooks, Edward. The Bessie Smith Companion: A Critical and Detailed Appreciation of the Recordings. Wheathampstead, Herts: Cavendish Publishing Company, 1982.
ML 420 .S667 B76 1982x

Calt, Stephen. King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton. Newton, N.J.: Rock Chapel Press, 1988.
ML 420 .P323 C34 1988

Dance, Helen Oakley. Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
ML 419 .W27 D3 1987

Danchin, Sebastian.  "Blues Boy": The Life and Music of  B. B. King.  Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 1998.
ML 420 .K473 D36 1998

Danchin, Sebastian.  Earl Hooker, Blues Master.  Jackson, University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
ML 419 .H65 D36 2001

Edwards, Honeyboy.  The Worl Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life and Times of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards.  Chicago, Chicago Reviw Press, 1997.
ML 420 .E28 A3 1997

Gordon, Robert.  Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters.  Boston, Little Brown, 2002.
ML 420 .M748 G67 2002

King, B. B.  Blues All Aroun Me: th Autobiography of B. B. King.  New York, Aon, 1996
ML 420 .K473 A3 1996

Lieb, Sandra R. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.
ML 420 .R274 L5

Murray, Charles Shaar.  Boogie Man: the Adventues of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century.  New York, St. Martin's, 2000
ML 420 H635 M87 2000

Schwerin, Jules Victor. Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 
ML 420 .J17 S4 1992

Segrest, James.  Moanin' At Mdnight: the Life and Tines of Howlin' Wolf.  New York, Pantheon, 2004.
ML 420 .H72 S44 2004

Toonze, Sandra B.  Muddy Waters: the Mojo Man.  Toronto, ECW Press, 1997.
ML 420 .M82 T66 1997t

Townsen, Henry.  A Blues Life.  Urbana, University of Illinoi Press, 1999.
ML 419 .T68 A3 1999

Wald, Elijah. Escaping the Dela: Robert Jonson and the Invention of the Blues.  New York, Amistad, 2004.
ML 420 .J735 W35 2004

Ward,-Royster, Willa.  How I Got Over: Clara Wad and the Worl Famous Ward Singers.  Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1997
ML 420 .W183 A3 1997

Wolfe, Charles K. The Life and Legend of Leadbelly, 1st edition. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
ML 420 .L277 W6 1992

Zolten, J. Jerome.  Great God A'mighty! the Dixie Hummingbirds.  New York, Oxford University Press, 2003
ML 394 .Z65 2003

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Sackheim, Eric. The Blues Line: A Collection of Blues Lyrics. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1969.
PS 593 .L8 S24

Taft, Michael. Talkin' To Myself: Blues Lyrics, 1920-1942.  New York, Routledge, 2005.
PS 591 .N4 T35 2005

Titon, Jeff.  Downhome Blues Lyrics: An Anthology from the Post-World War II Era.  Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.
ML 54.6 .D69

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Ford, Robert. A Blues Bibliography.  Bromley, Paul Pelletier, 1999.
REF  ML 128 .B49 F67 1999t

Compiled by:  David Ginsburg, April 2006

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