332
CHAPTER
14
BLUES, GOSPEL,
COUNTRY, AND FOLK
MUSIC IN THE GREAT
DEPRESSION AND
WORLD WAR II
A
s we saw in the previous chapter, many musicians in the classical sphere
responded to the populist climate of the Great Depression by embracing
an aesthetic of outreach. Their music, whether ultramodernist or con-
servative in style, attempted to speak to a broad audience, and its subject matter
often addressed the lives of plain folk. This chapter considers the music of those
plain folk, beginning with the rural blues records of the 1930s and ending with
the more politicized work of folk musicians before and during World War II. It
also explores two genres closely tied to folk roots: gospel and country music.COUNTRY BLUES
The classic blues recorded in the early 1920s represented the fi rst wave of blues
recordings. By the mid-1920s a different kind of blues performer began show-
ing up on race records: typically a male singer accompanying himself on gui-
tar, sometimes with a second performer on harmonica, mandolin, or guitar.
Country blues, the style of blues associated with this type of performer, takes
its name from the performers’ rural origins, though in fact many had migrated
to southern cities, and urban settings probably were important for the music’s
development. W hereas sales of classic blues records began to wane at the end
of the 1920s, records of country blues—especially Delta blues, associated with
the Mississippi River Delta region—remained strong sellers through the Great
Depression.
One of the fi rst country-blues musicians to make records was Blind Lemon
Jefferson, a Dallas-based street performer who traveled to Chicago to record for
the Paramount label. When four blues songs that Jefferson recorded in March
1926 became hits, selling many thousands of copies, the search was on for simi-
lar artists. A record store owner had recommended Jefferson to Paramount;Blind Lemon Jefferson172028_14_332-360_r3_ko.indd 332 23/01/13 8:37 PM