Professor Charles Peabody of Harvard University, an archeologist, made observations regarding the Delta Blues while in Coahoma County, Mississippi, to oversee the excavation of a Choctaw burial mound. The black crew hired to do the war sang in the style and he published his observations under the title "Notes on Negro Music" in the Journal of American Folklore.
Peabody had been captivated by the music.
This was an interesting time in musicology in regard to the Blues, and perhaps to other music styles as well. The blues had undoubtedly been around for a very long time, but this reflected the first effort to really describe the music, which was just about to cross into northern cities in the next decade when the Great Migration began.
The Panic of 1901 had concluded.
Last edition:
