"This fascinating work discusses the genesis and introduction of a minority music genre into mainstream culture in a way that is impossible to ignore, given the importance of blues connections to other genres. Essential reading for anyone interested in American popular music."--Dick Spottswood, host of The Dick Spottswood Show on BlueGrassCountry.org and editor of Ethnic Music on Records
Received a Certificate of Merit in the Best Music History category from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), 2011. "Required reading for lovers of the blues and historians of American popular music."--Notes "One of the most important and original books on blues to be published in the past decade."--The Journal of Southern History, David Evans
"Muir's revealing book contributes significantly to understanding how sheet music and the pop music industry influenced the blues. An important work."--Tim Brooks, author of Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919