Deep Blues by Robert Palmer

Book Review by Sarah Filkins

In Deep Blues, Robert Palmer traces the musical and cultural history of the blues from the Mississippi Delta to its influence around the world.  Most of the book is the result of interviews with blues musicians and others who worked with them.  While "deep blues" is his term for this style of Delta blues, the book reaches its own depth because of the author’s knowledge of the music and his respect for the musicians.  Palmer does not actually separate the music from the musicians:  "We need to understand the people who made and listened to blues, not just as blacks or oppressed Americans or romantic archetypes or clever technicians or successful entertainers but as particular people who made particular personal and artistic choices in a particular place at a particular time" (19). Palmer writes particularly about the lives and music of Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnston, Sunnyland Slim, Robert Lockwood, Sonny Boy Williamson, and many others who shaped the style of the blues and highly influenced rock music later on.
Robert Palmer, who was both a journalist and musicologist, used his own interviews to provide much of the material for Deep Blues.  Palmer describes sitting at the kitchen table with Muddy Waters at Muddy's home in Chicago and talking with Sunnyland Slim in the basement of a record store. He traveled through the areas where deep blues is played, listening to performances and recordings and talking with people who made the music and worked with the artists. Through these interviews and some interviews by other journalists, he is able to share stories and attitudes that may not otherwise be known.  He also includes a bibliography and an extensive discography, which is an important addition to the book.  Palmer quotes blues lyrics throughout the book, but it would be difficult to appreciate his descriptions of the music without having some familiarity with its sound.
Deep Blues begins where blues begins, with roots in Africa.  Palmer highlights features of African musical style and aesthetic values:  group participation, call and response, appreciation for buzzing sound, voice masking, and preference for rhythmic rather than melodic complexity.  These were all evident in early African-American music and blues, but Palmer is careful never to over-simplify blues style:  "Each blues performer draws on a mix of these sources and on the influence of other blues performers and comes up with something that is distinctively his or her own; the only way to define blues with any real precision would be to take the repertoire of every blues performer into account” (43). While that would be a near impossibility, Palmer does seem to take this approach as much as possible in defining the blues that originated in the Delta.  The Delta is the plain that stretches from just south of Memphis, Tennessee to Vicksburg, Mississippi, but the Delta blues style traveled much further.
 The book is then arranged somewhat chronologically, as well as geographically, following the movement of the blues.  Palmer begins with the story of Charley Patton, a guitarist whose father was a worker on Will Dockery's large farms in Cleveland, Mississippi, south of Memphis.  In Palmer's interview with Dockery's son and his wife in 1979, his wife stated, "In other words, we never heard these people sing.  We were never the type of plantation owners who invited their help to come in and sing for parties.  I wish we had realized that these people were so important” (55). Although perhaps not realized by the Dockery’s at the time, their farm and the surrounding area was known as the place to go to learn to play blues because of Charley Patton.
Palmer describes the struggles of these people who were considered unimportant. In addition to oppressive social and economic situations, some of the musicians were experiencing moral and spiritual struggle. Charley Patton wavered between studying the Bible for preaching and giving that up entirely to pursue music, alcohol, and women.  Tommy Johnson was influenced by Patton's music, but also by the lifestyle he lived in the area of Dockery's.  Tommy was one of the musicians who claimed he played so well because he went to a crossroad and met the Devil, a story that Palmer says is "as old as the blues".  Another musician who claimed the crossroad story was Robert Johnston, a great influence for Muddy Waters and many others.  Palmer notes that Johnston was "fascinated with and probably obsessed by supernatural imagery" (127), and quotes his blues lyrics that often referenced evil or voodoo. Palmer describes in detail Johnston's guitar style, which had complex rhythms and textures, including the distinctive bottleneck slide. Johnston had a profound musical influence on other blues and rock musicians. Eric Clapton and the rock group Cream brought back Johnston’s “Cross Road Blues” over thirty years later (125).
Palmer then follows Muddy Waters and the migration of the blues to Chicago and then Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Lockwood to Helena, Arkansas for the King Biscuit Time radio show. Muddy Waters, like many others, moved north to Chicago for a job. His musical style reflected the change of location and time: “rhythmic ‘pep’, flashier lyrics, and a more and more flamboyant performing style” (169), but he kept the slide guitar and continued to sing Delta favorites in Chicago. He began to play with Sunnyland Slim, and they both made recordings with Leonard Chess there. In Helena, Arkansas, Rice Miller and Robert Lockwood played regularly with the King Biscuit Time show, sponsored by King Biscuit Flour. Its first broadcast was in 1941, and began to bring blues to a mainstream audience.
Palmer recounts stories of numerous recording sessions and interactions between musicians.  He credits Sam Phillips and Ike Turner in Memphis for recording the best blues performers to be found in the Delta from 1950-1954.  Again the author respects respect of the musicians: "Phillip's interest in black people and their music wasn't particularly unusual for a white man of his age and background.  What is unusual is that he did something about it, and in doing so, revolutionized American popular music” (218).
The author gives a good sense of the cultural history of the blues through the stories of the musicians. The first chapter, “Beginnings,” has very specific musical information regarding style in African music and the beginning of the blues. Later chapters have shorter descriptions of each musician’s sound, but are not as in depth with musical analysis. After that first chapter, the author seems to shift more to the cultural information: the musicians, their lives, their lyrics, and their recordings.
Robert Palmer was a journalist, music critic, performer, and musicologist.  He taught music courses at Yale, Bowdoin, the Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn, College, and Memphis State University.  Deep Blues is both for the academic and general reader, although the author often assumes that the reader has some background knowledge in music or interest in the blues.  I found some of the descriptions of recording sessions to be a bit tedious to read, but for the most part he writes in colorful, conversational language.  Palmer often quotes blues lyrics and recognizes the "fusion" they have with the music.  He clearly appreciates the music and the musicians, without romanticizing their lives.  The deeply personal approach he takes with them makes this book stand apart from other music history books I have read.  Especially if a reader is completely new to the topic, I would recommend listening to the artists while reading.  The book also inspired a documentary film, Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads.  Without some listening or background, some sections of the book could read as lists of names and places which would be less meaningful.  If readers are interested in music and the blues, however, they should find something of value in Deep Blues. As a music teacher, I would be most interested in using this book for my own background information, including introduction to blues artists and their defining recordings.