cover image Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues

Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues

Steve Cheseborough. University Press of Mississippi, $50 (235pp) ISBN 978-1-57806-231-7

In Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues, Steve Cheseborough prescribes a course for getting one's fill of Mississippi blues. This localized, detailed and lively guidebook to blues music in Mississippi recommends following (by car) ""a rough circle beginning and ending in Memphis"" for a comprehensive tour, although those with less time can choose from the long list of blues sites. With maps, specific directions and succinct historical tidbits, Cheseborough describes blues venues as well as points of special interest, like the Clarksdale station, where Muddy Waters boarded the train for Chicago along with thousands of other African-Americans in the 1940s. A recommended listening section completes the picture. ( Mar.)