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Lost Delta found

John W. Work

2005343 pagesabout 5–8 hours
2005
first published
  • 2005Vanderbilt University Press · 343 pages · ENGISBN 9780826514851

When the Alan Lomax text "The Land Where the Blues Began" was published in 1993, the project study of 1941 and 1942 visits to the Mississippi Delta contained inaccuracies and ignored social issues. Here Robert Gordon uncovers the work of Fisk University's African American scholars who accompanied him: composer and musicologist John W. Work, sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, and graduate student Samuel C. Adams, Jr. These three men captured interviews, notes, and musical transcriptions that reveal an important alternative perspective on Lomax's work in the Delta region. Their work unveils place, religion, social justice issues, and a way of life that is woven into a rich musical heritage.

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