Blues - Philosophy for Everyone: Thinking Deep about Feeling Low (Paperback)

Foreword x
Bruce Iglauer

It Goes a Little Something Like This…: An Introduction to Blues – Philosophy for Everyone xvi
Jesse R. Steinberg and Abrol Fairweather

Acknowledgments xxviii

PART 1 HOW BLUE IS BLUE? THE METAPHYSICS OF THE BLUES 1

1 Talkin' To Myself Again: A Dialogue on the Evolution of the Blues 3
Joel Rudinow

2 Reclaiming the Aura: B. B. King in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 16
Ken Ueno

3 Twelve-Bar Zombies: Wittgensteinian Reflections on the Blues 25
Wade Fox and Richard Greene

4 The Blues as Cultural Expression 38
Philip Jenkins

PART 2 THE SKY IS CRYING: EMOTION, UPHEAVAL, AND THE BLUES 49

5 The Artistic Transformation of Trauma, Loss, and Adversity in the Blues 51
Alan M. Steinberg, Robert S. Pynoos, and Robert Abramovitz

6 Sadness as Beauty: Why it Feels So Good to Feel So Blue 66
David C. Drake

7 Anguished Art: Coming Through the Dark to the Light the Hard Way 75
Ben Flanagan and Owen Flanagan

8 Blues and Catharsis 84
Roopen Majithia

PART 3 IF IT WEREN’T FOR BAD LUCK, I WOULDN'T HAVE NO LUCK AT ALL: BLUES AND THE HUMAN CONDITION 95

9 Why Can't We be Satisfied?: Blues is Knowin’ How to Cope 97
Brian Domino

10 Doubt and the Human Condition: Nobody Loves Me but my Momma… and She Might be Jivin' Too 111
Jesse R. Steinberg

11 Blues and Emotional Trauma: Blues as Musical Therapy 121
Robert D. Stolorow and Benjamin A. Stolorow

12 Suffering, Spirituality, and Sensuality: Religion and the Blues 131
Joseph J. Lynch

13 Worrying the Line: Blues as Story, Song, and Prayer 142
Kimberly R. Connor

PART 4 THE BLUE LIGHT WAS MY BABY AND THE RED LIGHT WAS MY MIND: RELIGION AND GENDER IN THE BLUES 153

14 Lady Sings the Blues: A Woman’s Perspective on Authenticity 155
Meghan Winsby

15 Even White Folks Get the Blues 167
Douglas Langston and Nathaniel Langston

16 Distributive History: Did Whites Rip-Off the Blues? 176
Michael Neumann

17 Whose Blues?: Class, Race, and Gender in American Vernacular Music 191
Ron Bombardi

Philosophical Blues Songs 203

Notes on Contributors 205