The essential connection between music and the specific places where musicians live and create their sounds would seem to be an obvious matter. How can one conceive of history of the subject in this country without taking into account the impact of, for example, New Orleans, New York City, Detroit, Memphis, Chicago, or Nashville upon the material that was written, played and recorded in these locations? At the same time various forms of music are spoken of as if they were the same regardless of where they might exist. In the case of the Blues, the impact of the inner city as against the rural environment of the deep South resulted in very different sounds, lyrics and performance styles, but the music created in both environments is constituted as one and the same thing. Until and unless we bring together the patterns of social customs, oral lore and performance styles with the specific places in which those patterns took hold, no adequate conclusions can be reached about the Blues as a complex and diverse cultural tradition. Furthermore, to discover the dimensions and dynamics of that tradition, it is imperative that we speak directly to the individuals who create that music as well as the friends and neighbors who form the community in which that music illustrates common triumphs and tribulations.
William Ferris’ Blues from the Delta investigates the impact of physical environment and social custom upon the individuals who perform in the Blues tradition and live within the region of Mississippi and Arkansas known to us as the delta. This volume was originally written as Dr. Ferris’ dissertation, but it lacks the often alienating tone of a scholarly investigation. The language is clear, straightforward and emotionally engaged in its subject. In fact, Dr. Ferris’ is not always a dominant voice. A significant portion of the book amounts to oral history drawn from Blues men native to the region. Dr. Ferris allows their words to stand on their own and never attempts to translate them into academically fashionable terminology. In fact, one of the most notable and fascinating sections of Blues From The Delta is an extended dialogue between a Clarksdale, Mississippi pianist, Wallace ‘Pine Top’ Johnson and a neighborhood and friend, Jasper Love. It illustrates, among other things, that in Ferris’ words, ‘the Blues should be studied in the context of a field recorded session to appreciate the drama and complexity of each song as it emerges from the conversation of others present, who respond to and interrupt the singer during the performance.’
Dr. Ferris develops several other important ideas in the course of his study. One is the relationship between verse structure in the Blues and the formative body of metaphors and images that constitute the genre’s lyrical repertoire. He convincingly explains how the presence of borrowed or inherited language on the part of performers should not lead us to deny the importance of individualism or originality in the creation of Blues lyrics. Instead it reinforces how much the oral tradition plays a part in the Blues. No one performer exists in isolation but builds his work with an awareness of his predecessors. Dr. Ferris also explains how we limit our understanding of the oral tradition if we restrict solely to face-to-face contact. The impact of recordings and other forms of media plays a vital role in the process. Dr. Ferris elaborates upon the influence of preexisting material through an examination of what he calls ‘make-ups,’ whereby Blues performers amalgamate new material from the wealth of songs they already know but which, nonetheless, bears their unique personality. As James ‘Son’ Thomas explains the process to him, ‘Just think of you a verse and go from there. From then on you can skip around and do what you wanta do.’
Blues from the Delta is one of the major works in the literature of the genre because it builds upon the preexistent scholarship as well as the words of the musicians themselves to ‘make up’ a unique and useful examination of the subject. The book also was the beginning of a rich and fulfilling journey for Dr. Ferris himself. From its original publication in 1970, he has gone on to found the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and develop novel programs and publications on the region’s way of life and cultural resources. Among other endeavors, the Center assembled the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and engineered a number of seminars and conferences dedicated to the region. At present, Dr. Ferris is the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In that capacity he endeavors to assists the nation in understanding and appreciating the various special cultures that constitute our multi-cultural environment. Nonetheless, the music of the delta and the way of life it illustrates remain for him a deep and invaluable personal resource for understanding life and all its complexity.
— (Blues Foundation press release, 1998.)