The Blues: Library Research Databases
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Accessible Archives (History Commons) This link opens in a new windowAccessible Archives includes diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views of United States history and culture, especially African American history and women's history and historical newspapers. The date scope focuses on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Afro-Americana Imprints (Readex/Newsbank) 1535-1922 This link opens in a new windowCreated from the Library Companys Afro-Americana Collectionwhich began with Benjamin Franklinthis online resource provides more than 12,000 printed books, pamphlets and broadsides, about the African American experience, Africa and the Caribbean, and including works by African American authors.
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American Periodicals Series, 1741-1940 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowDigitized images of the pages of 1000 American magazines and journals published between 1741 and 1940. Titles include Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, the first American professional journals, and several consumer magazines still in publication, such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Ladies' Home Journal.
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Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowUS and UK trade magazines (1880-2000) covering the vaudeville era to the internet era. Includes Billboard, Variety, Broadcasting, Melody Maker and much more
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HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowThis resource is made available to the Northeastern University community with support from alumni donors.
These video oral history interviews highlight the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. A resource for students and scholars exploring African American history and culture. Over 2700 individuals are profiled. Transcripts available. -
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Citations and abstracts of articles on a global range of topics: historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments, voice, dance, music therapy.
- What this includes: Articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, conference proceedings, reviews, and more. Covers 1967 - present.
Documentaries
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Lightning in a bottle byPublication Date: 2004On February 7, 2003, renowned artists across music genres and generations commandeered the stage at New York City's Radio City Music Hall to pay tribute to their common heritage and passion: the blues
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Blues Houseparty: Masters of the Piedmont BluesPublication Date: 1989Illustrates a particular style of blues from the southeast and coastal United States.
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Mississippi Ramblin': On the tracks of Robert Johnson in the Deep SouthA film--about a graphic novel--about a blues musician.
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T'Ain't Nobody's Bizness (Opens in new window) Explores the hidden sexualities of Black female entertainers who reigned over the nascent blues recording industry of the 1920s. Unlike the male-dominated jazz scene, early blues provided a space for women to model an autonomy that was remarkable for women of any color or sexual orientation. The fact that some of these women, still famous 90 years later, successfully conducted same-sex relations with friends and working partners is a tribute to their independent spirit and a marker of the relaxed mores that shaped the world of Black entertainment.
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Wild women don't have the blues: the women, the music, the legacy.The story of Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, and other pioneering blues women from early in the century.
Select Books on the Blues
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Blues People
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ISBN: 9780688184742Publication Date: 1999-01-20"A must for all who would more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America's most popular music." -- Langston Hughes -
Blues unlimited : essential interviews from the original blues magazine
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ISBN: 9780252097508Publication Date: 2015 -
The British Blues Network
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ISBN: 9780472130528Publication Date: 2017-09-30Beginning in the late 1950s, an influential cadre of young, white, mostly middle-class British men were consuming and appropriating African-American blues music, using blues tropes in their own music and creating a network of admirers and emulators that spanned the Atlantic. This cross-fertilization helped create a commercially successful rock idiom that gave rise to the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin. What empowered these white, middle-class British men to identify with and claim aspects of the musical idiom of African-American blues musicians? The British Blues Network examines the role of British narratives of masculinity and power in the postwar era of decolonization and national decline that contributed to the creation of this network. -
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Encyclopedia of the Blues 2-Volume Set
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This comprehensive two-volume set brings together all aspects of the blues from performers and musical styles to record labels and cultural issues, including regional evolution and history. Organized in an accessible A-to-Z format, the Encyclopedia of the Blues is an essential reference resource for information on this unique American music genre. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of the Blues website.
ISBN: 9780415926997Publication Date: 2005-10-28 -
Love in Vain
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ISBN: 9780571328833Publication Date: 2016-11-29Award-winning graphic telling of the life of Robert Johnson, the legendary bluesman whose music was foundational to 20th century blues. -
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Write Me a Few of Your Lines
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ISBN: 9781558492059Publication Date: 1999-11-01A selection of writings, published between 1911 and 1998, on the subject of blues music. Included are contributions by folklorists, anthropologists, sociologists, literary artists, musicians, critics and aficionados.
