Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions on Race Records, Paul Oliver.

In this innovatory book the celebrated writer on the blues, Paul Oliver, rediscovers the wealth of neglected vocal traditions presented on Race records. 

When blues first reached a large audience it was through the 'Race records' issued specifically for black purchasers in the 1920s. Blues South have been extensively discussed by many writers. Paul Oliver shows that this emphasis has drawn attention away from the other important vocal traditions also available on Race records: the songs of Southern rural dances, the comic and social songs and ballads of the medicine shows and travelling entertainments, and, even more neglected, the sacred vocal traditions, from the song-sermons of the Baptist and Sanctified preachers to the gospel songs of the church congregations and of the 'jack-leg' preachers and street evangelists. 

Over 500 artists and 700 song titles are indexed and there is a guide to reissued recordings.

Cambridge University Press 1984 first edition paperback.  Illustrated throughout with b/w photos and line drawings.

Good. Top end of the grade. Generally a pretty clean and tidy issue. Tips just fractionally furled. Spine fractionally sunned, not obtrusively so, no loss to print. A minor hairline crease to spine, else neat and tidy in this area. Internally clean and tidy, with just a tiny tan stain to bottom of interior of front wrap and in same position to fep. Page edges slightly grubby but are white beneath and not browned. Original Cambridge University Press price sticker to bottom right of rear wrap.