Books by Adam Gussow

Using blues literature and history as a cultural anchor, Adam Gussow defines, interprets, and makes sense of the blues for the new millennium. Drawing on the blues tradition's major writers, and grounded in his first-person knowledge of the blues performance scene, Gussow's thought-provoking book kickstarts a long overdue conversation.

In this groundbreaking study, Adam Gussow takes the full measure of the devil's presence in the blues. Working from original transcriptions of more than 125 recordings released during the past ninety years, Gussow explores the varied uses to which black southern blues people have put this trouble-sowing, love-wrecking, but also empowering figure.