Staging the Blues

Paige A. McGinley is Assistant Professor of Performing Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

• Acknowledgments viiIntroduction. Beale on Broadway 11. Real Personality: The Blues Actress 312. Theater Folk: Huddie Ledbetter on the Stage 823. Southern Exposure: Transatlantic Blues 1294. Highway 61 Revisited: Blues Tourism at Ground Zero 177Notes 221Bibliography 257Index 271

"A fascinating study that ought to be widely read and its implications thoughtfully considered. For scholars, critics, historians, and aficionados of the blues." - Genevieve Williams (Library Journal) “[McGinley] does a worthy job of explaining how the dominant framing of the blues essentially assigned the very notion of theatrical performance – and, by extension, a performer’s right to develop a stage presence of his/her own choosing – to a gendered, second-class status. The irony turns out to be that said framing was itself a theatrical construct in the first place.” - Mark Reynolds (PopMatters) “In this concise musical journey of the mise-en-scÈne of blues music performances, McGinley takes readers to the South, starting with the tent shows of an earlier era and concluding with the current staging of the blues for genre travelers and tourists. … Readers are left with the knowledge of what scenic staging has meant for blues throughout the decades. … Recommended. All readers.” - T. Emery (Choice) “Staging the Blues will likely become the latest in a line of mould-breaking scholarly works on the blues to have emerged in recent years. McGinley’s emphasis on theatricality brings life to well-worn subjects, and aptly illustrates the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach that is not yet the norm in blues scholarship. This book is quite simply a must for all scholars and students of African American performance culture.”- Lawrence Davies (Studies in Theatre and Performance) “Tracing the iterative qualities of theatrical blues trappings and their transformation by blues performers, Staging the Blues makes an important contribution to our understanding of the production and performance of race. Its exhaustive archival depth recasts familiar performances and introduces new material that adds to the scholarly repertoire of black performance studies. Most significantly, it establishes a vital conversation between popular theatre and music that provides a model of interdisciplinary performance studies.”  - Shane Vogel (Theatre Research International) "[T]his study will prove to be one of the most captivating additions to the scholarship on the blues to date." - Tammy L. Kernodle (American Studies) "In short, this book is a must-read. McGinley’s methodology and historical purview tear down those worn-out perceptions of authenticity to reinsert the thespian dynamism of American vernacular music." - Stephanie Vander Wel (Journal of Southern History) "Staging the Blues complicates and reaches beyond the blues landscape, making it a significant and timely text for scholars and music aficionados alike."- Emily Rutter (Women & Performance) "Staging the Blues is an exemplary contribution to a new body of performance studies scholarship that embeds music critically in its sociopolitical, cultural, and artistic milieu." - Joseph Roach (TDR: The Drama Review) "In unpackaging what we thought we knew about blues performances, McGinley powerfully demonstrates their centrality in shaping a musical history for the United States and beyond." - Patricia R. Schroeder (African American Review)