Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues by William Ferris

From the Publisher

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the speakers and their communities and including a dual CD/DVD that presents his original field recordings and films, the book features more than twenty musicians who relate frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South.

Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. From celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon to artists known best in their neighborhoods, they express the full range of human experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful.

In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.

Publishers Weekly

For blues lovers who love their experience pure and strong, Ferris (Blues from the Delta) conducted more than 20 interviews of blues and gospel performers from the Mississippi Delta for his latest book. The author did much of this fieldwork as a graduate student during the 1960s and 1970s, capturing these singers close to where they grew up, chopping cotton and tending the farms during the day and prowling around the jukes and roadhouses at night. From among the Delta locals of sacred and secular music, Ferris interviews such blues masters as James “Son Ford” Thomas, Willie Dixon and B.B. King, with their words accompanied by a stirring CD/DVD of their music. There is an intriguing section on the infamous Parchman Penitentiary in the Delta, where cruel overseers and defiant inmates battle each other. Joyous, powerful and authentic, this package is designed to both inform and entertain those willing to plunge into this audacious world. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Distinguished folklorist and blues scholar Ferris (senior associate director, Ctr. for the Study of the American South, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has crafted a captivating and diverse multimedia experience for fans and scholars of the blues and gospel music. Supplementing and expanding upon his 1978 book, Blues from the Delta, he here presents transcriptions of stories he captured via films and recording devices from the 1960s and 1970s of Mississippi blues practitioners, preachers, and Parchman Prison inmates. The enclosed CD and DVD bring the package together with stories, blues songs, and gospel recordings. B.B. King and Willie Dixon are the most famous artists included, but the stories of desperately poor sharecroppers and ex-inmates are just as engrossing. The comprehensive bibliography is a great resource. In addition to Ferris's books, libraries may want to consider Alan Lomax's classic The Land Where the Blues Began. VERDICT Ferris's new book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the blues or Southern history. [See also "Editors' Fall Picks," p. 24.]—Todd Spires, Bradley Univ., Peoria, IL

Product Details

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Table of Contents