Music - Subject Guides

NPR Music Online : Jazz and Blues

Online audio site from NPR including many links and live streams of music, reviews, and videos.

The American Folklife Center Bibliography of the Blues

This online finding aid is a bibliography including numerous print resources for books and periodicals about the blues.

The Delta Blues Museum Uncensored History of Music Podcast

The Delta Blues Museum's Uncensored Blues Podcast takes a raw look at the early history of recorded blues in the U.S. Each show includes a series of rare pre-war blues tracks and some discussion of those songs.

The Smithsonian Folkways Rhythms of Poetry and the Blues

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. They are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. This folkways page includes video, audio, and text regarding the blues and how poetry relates to this musical form.

The University of Mississippi Blues Archive

The Blues Archive at the University of Mississippiacquires and preserves blues and blues-related materials in a variety of formats for scholars of the blues, African American studies, and southern culture.  With over 60,000 sound recordings, in most audio formats; over 20,000 photographs; more than 1,000 videos; over 6,000 books, periodicals and newsletters; and numerous manuscripts and ephemera, the Blues Archive houses one of the largest collections of blues recordings, publications, and memorabilia in the world.

The Year of the Blues

This site offers Blues recordings, links, and all thirteen episodes online of The Blues: the radio series. This site covers the history of the blues and was created in celebration of the national year of the blues in 2003.

Allen, Bob, Berkley, Elizabeth, Briggs, Keith et al. Blues: The Complete Story. London : Flame Tree, 2007.

MUSIC STACKS ML3521.B58 2007

This work covers the history of the blues and includes bibliographic references and an index.

Ford, Robert. A Blues Bibliography. New York : Routledge, 2007.

MUSIC STACKS  ML128.B49 F67 2007

This work is a bibliography of blues music that includes bibliographic entries and full index.

Holiday, Billie. Lady Sings the Blues. New York : Broadway Books, 2006, c1956.

MUSIC STACKS ML420.H58 A3 2006

This book is an autobiography of famed blues singer Billie Holiday. It also includes a discography of her music.

Komara, Edward. Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York : Routledge, 2006. 

MUSIC REFERENCE ML102.B6 E53 2006 v.1 & v.2

This two volume work is an encyclopedia of blues music and musicians. The work also includes bibliographical references and index.

Oliver, Paul. Broadcasting the Blues: Black Blues in the Segregation Era. New York : Routledge, 2006.

MUSIC STACKS ML3521.O445 2006 

This book is about the history of blues music in the segregation era. The work also includes a discography and indexes.

Weissman, Dick. Blues: The Basics. New York : Routledge, 2005.

MUSIC STACKS  ML3521.W45 2005

This book covers the roots of the blues, the folk blues, rhythm and blues, the blues revival, and the new generation of blues artists.

Wynn, Neil A. Cross the Water Blues: African American Music in Europe. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2007.

MUSIC STACKS  ML3488.C76 2007

This book covers blues music and African-American culture in the trans-Atlantic world.