Thursday, March 19, 2015

Samuel Charters (1929–2015)

Samuel Charters was a pioneer of blues scholarship. He may have done more than anyone else to popularize the inchoate but deeply appealing idea of “the country blues.” The New York Times has an obituary: “Samuel Charters, Foundational Scholar of the Blues, Dies at 85.”

[Deeply appealing to whom? To young palefaces like me who were looking for something genuine in music.]

comments: 1

Chris said...

Sorry to hear that. I still have my much dog-eared copy of his book Sweet As the Showers of Rain. He always gave the impression of caring about the musicians he wrote about as human beings (and as individuals), not just as projections of whatever obsessions he needed to work out. A good guy, I think.