Edward Komara - 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own

The Grand Debate of the Blues. Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians edited by Lawrence Cohn (1993)

A History of the Blues from the Mouths of Many. The Story of the Blues by Paul Oliver (1969; 2nd ed. 1997)

A Hands-On Definition of the Blues. 12-Bar Blues: The Complete Guide for Guitar by Dave Rubin (1999)

Where the Blues Is a Feeling. The Devils Music: A History of the Blues by Giles Oakley (original ed. 1976; 2nd ed. 1997)

The Blues as Oral History. Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From: Lyrics and History edited by Robert Springer (2006)

What Should Africa Mean to the Blues? Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions in the Blues by Paul Oliver (1970)

Leaving and Returning to Africa. Africa and the Blues by Gerhard Kubik (1999)

The Blues Fans Introduction to the Spirituals. The Spirituals and the Blues by James H. Cone (1972)

Paving a Highway for the Blues. Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music 18891895 by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff (2002)

Until There Were Enough Blues Songs for a Whole Evening. Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff (2007)

The Blues on Paper. Long Lost Blues: Popular Blues in America, 18501920 by Peter Muir (2010)

Blues to Be Heard and Seized. Father of the Blues: An Autobiography by W. C. Handy; edited by Arna Bontemps; foreword by Abbe Niles (1941)

Blues to Be Hustled. Born with the Blues: Perry Bradfords Own Story; The True Story of the Pioneering Blues Singers and Musicians in the Early Days of Jazz by Perry Bradford (1965)

The Two Ends of the Blues Spectrum. Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues by David Evans (1982)

The Sexual Intensity of Ma Rainey. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey by Sandra Lieb (1981)

The Empress of the Blues. Bessie by Chris Albertson (1972; rev. and exp. ed. 2003)

Going Public through the Blues. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s by Daphne Duval Harrison (1987)

Nostalgia in Memphis for the Days When Jug Bands Were King. Memphis Blues and Jug Bands by Bengt Olsson (1970)

Blues Was Only Half of Black Music during the 1920s. Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records by Paul Oliver (1984)

Music More Durable Than Furniture. Paramounts Rise and Fall by Alex van der Tuuk (original ed. 2003; revised and expanded ed. 2012)

The Shellac Broadside. 78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South by John Minton (2008)

The Blues Sisterhood. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis (1998)

Get on Your Feet! Stomping the Blues by Albert Murray (original ed. 1976; revised ed. 1989)

A Railroader for Me. Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong by Norm Cohen (1981; 2nd ed. 2000)

Songster of the Swamplands. The Life and Legend of Leadbelly by Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell (1992)

From Ragtime to Rhythm and Blues. Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop by Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix (2005)

Tobacco Country Blues. Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast by Bruce Bastin (1986)

A Piedmont Blues Odyssey. Crying for the Carolines by Bruce Bastin (1971)

Fighting Racism with the Blues. The Bluesmen by Samuel Charters (1967)

Is There Harm in Singing the Blues? Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis by Jeff Todd Titon (original ed. 1977; 2nd edition 1994)

Ive Got the St. Louis Blues. A Blues Life by Henry Townsend as told to Bill Greensmith (1999)

Oooh, Well, Well. The Devils Son-in-Law: The Story of Peetie Wheatstraw & His Songs by Paul Garon (original ed. 1971; revised and expanded ed. 2003)

Where and When Pianos Are Preferred to Guitars. Deep South Piano: The Story of Little Brother Montgomery by Karl Gert zur Heide (1970)

Going Where Robert Johnson and Skip James Had Gone To. Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick (1989)

Listen at the Crossroad. The Road to Robert Johnson: The Genesis and Evolution of Blues in the Delta from the Late 1800s through 1938 by Edward Komara (2007)

Marketing the Delta. Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues by Elijah Wald (2004)