I Don't Like the Blues - by B Brian Foster (Paperback)

About the Book

"In this illuminating work, Foster takes us where not many blues writers and scholars have gone: into the homes, memories, speculative visions, and lifeworlds of black folks in contemporary Mississippi to hear what they have to say about the blues and all that has come about since their forebears first sang them. In so doing, Foster urges us to think differently about race, place, and community development and models a different way of hearing the sounds of black life, a method that he calls 'listening for the backbeat'"--

Book Synopsis

How do you love and not like the same thing at the same time? This was the riddle that met Mississippi writer B. Brian Foster when he returned to his home state to learn about Black culture and found himself hearing about the blues. One moment, Black Mississippians would say they knew and appreciated the blues. The next, they would say they didn't like it. For five years, Foster listened and asked: "How?" "Why not?" "Will it ever change?" This is the story of the answers to his questions.

In this illuminating work, Foster takes us where not many blues writers and scholars have gone: into the homes, memories, speculative visions, and lifeworlds of Black folks in contemporary Mississippi to hear what they have to say about the blues and all that has come about since their forebears first sang them. In so doing, Foster urges us to think differently about race, place, and community development and models a different way of hearing the sounds of Black life, a method that he calls listening for the backbeat.

Review Quotes

Foster's thoughtful and well-researched look at race and the blues via an exploration of a distressed and declining Southern rural town will be useful to music and sociology academics."--Library Journal

This is a book about music and culture. But, most of all, this is about Clarksdale's Black residents' self-conscious challenging of the possibilities denied to them by the status quo. . . . [Foster's] work also opens room for other comparative investigations approaching similar processes all over the African Diaspora spaces in the American continent."--Oral History Journal

I Don't Like the Blues interlaces historical events and personal stories that illuminate the lived experiences of Black residents of the city of Clarksdale, Mississippi. . . . [Foster's work] retains the true characters of Black Clarksdalians whilst providing them a space and tool to talk about their lives."--Social Forces