The Blues Audiobook By Chris Thomas King cover art

The Blues

The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Blues

By: Chris Thomas King
Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $38.00

Buy for $38.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

All prior histories on the blues have alleged it originated on plantations in the Mississippi Delta. Not true, says author Chris Thomas King. In The Blues, King presents facts to disprove such myths. For example, as early as 1900, the sound of the blues was ubiquitous in New Orleans. The Mississippi Delta, meanwhile, was an unpopulated sportsman’s paradise - the frontier was still in the process of being cleared and drained for cultivation. Moreover, this book is the first to argue that the blues began as a cosmopolitan art form, not a rural one.

Protestant states such as Mississippi and Alabama could not have incubated the blues. New Orleans was the only place in the Deep South where the sacred and profane could party together without fear of persecution. Expecting these findings to be controversial in some circles, King has buttressed his conclusions with primary sources and years of extensive research, including a sojourn to West Africa and interviews with surviving folklorists and blues researchers from the 1960s folk-rediscovery epoch. They say the blues is blasphemous - the devil’s music. King says they’re unenlightened, that blues music is about personal freedom.

©2021 Chris Thomas King (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC Music
All stars
Most relevant  
This book skewers the popular held myth that Blues is descended from primitive musicians in the Mississippi Delta. Mr. King sets the record straight with compelling evidence that the Blues originated from Creole roots of New Orleans. I highly encourage anyone who loves the Blues to listen to this book. It’s time to stop repeating the big Blues lie!

Required Reading for Blues Lovers!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Chris Thomas King builds a strong case that the accepted narrative surrounding the origins and history of the blues is incorrect, while filling many gaps that have never made logical sense to me when scrutinized.

Must read for anyone instered in the history of the blues, jazz, or american music in general.

Subverts The Accepted Narrative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.