Songsters and Saints
Vocal Traditions on Race Records

Paul Oliver rediscovers the wealth of neglected vocal traditions represented on Race records.

Paul Oliver (Author)

9780521269421, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 September 1984

348 pages
23 x 15.3 x 2.2 cm, 0.535 kg

"...fills an interesting and important gap in American musical history." Cashbox

In this innovatory book the celebrated writer on the blues, Paul Oliver, rediscovers the wealth of neglected vocal traditions presented on Race records. When blues first reached a large audience it was through the 'Race records' issued specifically for black purchasers in the 1920s. Blues South have been extensively discussed by many writers. Paul Oliver shows that this emphasis has drawn attention away from the other important vocal traditions also available on Race records: the songs of Southern rural dances, the comic and social songs and ballads of the medicine shows and travelling entertainments, and, even more neglected, the sacred vocal traditions, from the song-sermons of the Baptist and Sanctified preachers to the gospel songs of the church congregations and of the 'jack-leg' preachers and street evangelists. Over 500 artists and 700 song titles are indexed and there is a guide to reissued recordings.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
A note on the transcriptions
The half ain't never been told
An introduction
1. Do the Bombashay
2. Under the chicken tree
3 The long-tailed blue
4. If luck don't change
5. As the eagle stirreth her nest
6. Three ways to praise
7. Honey in the rock
8. Natural-born men
9. Next week, sometime…?
Notes
Bibliography
A guide to reissued recordings
Index of song titles
Index of artists
General index.

Subject Areas: Blues [AVGK]