This book analyzes the process of composition, learning and performance of the Southern folk blues of black America. Never before has this musical form been examined so scrupulously. Evans traces the impact of commercialism, especially the phonograph record, on blues history, as well as the various local traditions that produce a given blues tune and text. The author has done extensive field work in Mississippi and provides here a structure for understanding not only the blues but almost any other oral literature from other cultures. This book won the University of Chicago Folklore Prize. All of the greatest blues singers - Robert Johnson, Tommy Johnson, Muddy Waters, Blink Willie McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson - are discussed in relation to their predecessors and followers.