About the Author

Samuel Charters is a musicographer, novelist, poet, and producer of jazz and blues records who for many years has also been seriously interested in every aspect of black music. His book, The Country Blues, was the first to be published on the subject. He began making field recordings in the South in the early 1950s and has subsequently produced many recordings, both of individual blues artists and of the musical backgrounds of the blues in the United States and the Caribbean. He has since extended his research and recording to West Africa. His other books include Jazz: A History of the New York Scene, The Blues Makers, and The Roots of the Blues.