Description
Book SynopsisExplores lyrical representations of romantic and sexual betrayal in the blues, revealing deceit and entrapment constraining the physical, socioeconomic, and political movement of African Americans. Argues that blues music calls for a reckoning while expressing faith in a secular and moral justice-to-come.
Trade Review“A fresh and much-needed accounting of the economic and political ramifications of blues lyrics.”
—D. V. Moskowitz Choice
“A fabulous and much-needed book. It is a pioneering study of musicking, protest, and political economy, a call for reparations even as it directs our attention to that call in the blues. It will open our eyes, unclog our ears, and strengthen our hearts to learn that Black musicians have been leading us to justice all along. It is up to us to follow.”
—Charles McGovern,author of Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945
“Simon’s overall argument is compelling, her scholarship surpassingly good, and her exegeses of individual blues songs are consistently insightful and even scintillating. Debt and Redemption in the Blues is a major work of blues scholarship.”
—Adam Gussow,author of Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition
“By synthesizing an understudied body of literature, Debt and Redemption in the Blues presents a wide variety of original interpretations. The balance of the logic in Julia Simon’s ethno-musical analysis and the imagination of selecting thematically relevant expressions deepens our understanding of Black history and culture.”
—Walter D. Greason,author of Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey
