Table of Contents

Chapter 1.  The Popular Blues Industry 1912-1920

The Birth of Popular Blues
The Nature and Scope of the Early Popular Blues Industry
The Development of the Popular Blues Industry
Blues Performances in the Mainstream

Chapter 2.  The Identity and Idiom of Early Popular Blues

The Main Influences: Folk Blues and Tin Pan Alley
An Overview of Popular Blues Songs
The Five Categories of Popular Blues Songs
An Overview of Instrumental Blues
Some Distinctive Components of the Popular Blues Idiom

Chapter 3.  Curing the Blues with the Blues

Origins and Definitions of the Term “Blues”
Musical Alleviation of the Blues
Homeopathic and Allopathic Blues

Chapter 4.  The Blues of W. C. Handy

Blues from the Memphis Period (1909-1917)
Blues After the Move to New York (1917-1953)

Chapter 5.  The Creativity of Early Southern Published Blues

Southern Published Blues of 1912-1914
Euday L. Bowman
George W. Thomas
Perry Bradford
Southern Published Blues of 1915-1920

Chapter 6.  Published Proto-Blues and the Evolution of the Twelve-Bar Sequence

Development of the Blues Song
The Evolution of the Twelve-Bar Blues Sequence
Conclusion