Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Prelude -- Introduction -- 1. Hard . . . Make It Easy -- 2. We Ain't That No Mo' -- 3. That's for the White Folks -- 4. You Just Get Tired of It -- Conclusion -- Coda -- Acknowledgments -- A Spirit in the Dirt(y): A Methodological Note -- Appendix: Demographic Tables -- Notes -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y
Summary
"In this illuminating work, Foster takes us where not many blues writers and scholars have gone: into the homes, memories, speculative visions, and lifeworlds of black folks in contemporary Mississippi to hear what they have to say about the blues and all that has come about since their forebears first sang them. In so doing, Foster urges us to think differently about race, place, and community development and models a different way of hearing the sounds of black life, a method that he calls 'listening for the backbeat'"-- Provided by publisher
