Research Catalog

Title

Deep inside the blues : photographs and interviews / Margo Cooper ; foreword by William R. Ferris.

Author

Cooper, Margo (Photographer)

Publication

• Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2023]
• ©2023

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Ferris, William R.

Description

xxxii, 347 pages : illustrations; 26 x 29 cm.

Summary

"Deep Inside the Blues collects thirty-four of Margo Cooper's interviews with blues artists and is illustrated with over 160 of her photographs, many published here for the first time. For thirty years, Cooper has been documenting the lives of blues musicians, their families and homes, neighborhoods, festivals, and gigs. Her photographic work combines iconic late-career images of many legendary figures including Bo Diddley, Honeyboy Edwards, B.B. King, Pinetop Perkins, and Hubert Sumlin with youthful shots of Cedric Burnside, Shemekia Copeland, and Sharde Thomas, themselves now in their thirties and forties. During this time, the Burnside and Turner families and other Mississippi artists such as T-Model Ford, James "Super Chikan" Johnson, and L. C. Ulmer entered the national and international spotlight, ensuring the powerful connection between authentic Delta, Hill Country, and Piney Woods blues musicians and their audience continues. In 1993, Cooper began photographing in the clubs around New England, then in Chicago, and before long in Mississippi and Helena, Arkansas. On her very first trips to Mississippi in 1997 and 1998, Cooper had the good fortune to photograph Sam Carr, Frank Frost, Bobby Rush, and Otha Turner, among others. "The blues come out of the field," Ulmer told Cooper. Seeing those fields, as well as the old juke joints, country churches, and people's homes, inspired her. She began recording interviews with the musicians, sometimes over a period of years, listening and asking questions as their narratives unfolded. Many of the key blues players of the period have already passed, making their stories and Cooper's photographs of them all the more poignant and valuable"--

Series Statement

American made music series

Subject

• Blues musicians > Mississippi > Portraits
• Blues musicians > Mississippi > Interviews
• Blues (Music) > Mississippi > History and criticism
• African Americans > Portraits

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Foreword by William Ferris -- Preface -- 1. Willie "Big Eyes" Smith -- 2. Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith -- 3. Calvin "Fuzz" Jones -- 4. Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson -- 5. Sam Carr -- 6. Robert "Bilbo" Walker -- 7. James "Super Chikan" Johnson -- 8. Joshua "Razorblade" Stewart -- 9. Betty Vaughn -- 10. Joe Cole -- 11. Irene "Ma Rene" Williams -- 12. David Lee Durham -- 13. "Cadillac John" Nolden -- 14. Bill Abel -- 15. Monroe Jones -- 16. "T-Model" Ford -- 17. Eddie Cusic -- 18. "Farmer John" (John Horton, Jr.) -- 19. Mary Shepard -- Club Ebony -- 20. Eden Brent -- 21. "Mississippi Slim" (Walter Horn Jr.) -- 22. Mickey Rogers -- 23. L. C. Ulmer -- 24. Willie King -- 25. Jimmy "Duck" Holmes -- 26. Bud Spires -- 27. Remembering Otha Turner -- 28. Abe "Keg" Young -- 29. Calvin Jackson -- 30. Earl "Little Joe" Ayers -- 31. Kenny Brown -- 32. Garry Burnside -- 33. Cedric Burnside -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

Call Number

Sc+ F 24-18

ISBN

• 9781496847416
• 1496847415
• 9781496847423 (canceled/invalid)
• 9781496847430 (canceled/invalid)
• 9781496847447 (canceled/invalid)
• 9781496847454 (canceled/invalid)
• 1496847423 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2023017022

OCLC

1378359136

Author

Cooper, Margo (Photographer), author.

Title

Deep inside the blues : photographs and interviews / Margo Cooper ; foreword by William R. Ferris.

Publisher

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2023]

Copyright Date

©2023

Type of Content

still image

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Physical Medium

illustration rdaill

Series

American made music series

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Ferris, William R., writer of foreword.

Research Call Number

Sc+ F 24-18