Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Reprint: New York: Da Capo Press, 1987.
Musicologist Dr. David Evans drew on his extensive research in south Mississippi and Louisiana dating back to 1965 to discuss the processes of folk blues tradition and composition in Big Road Blues. Evans focuses on the tradition associated with blues legend Tommy Johnson from Crystal Springs, Mississippi, and the musicians he influenced. Evans interviewed and recorded Johnson’s brothers LeDell and Mager, bluesmen Mott Willis, Houston Stackhouse, Babe Stovall, Willis Taylor, and others. The book includes musical and lyrical transcriptions of various songs. Somewhat to Evans’ chagrin, the most quoted section of the book is the story told by LeDell of Tommy Johnson selling himself to the devil, which has since morphed into the overblown Hollywood saga of Robert Johnson (unrelated to Tommy) and the crossroads.
— Jim O’Neal