week 1 - 8/18

topics: folklore, folksong (some definitions) -- African Diaspora/Atlantic slave trade -- geography of the blues [see Blues Maps] -- originality, authenticity of the blues

viewing/listening: Blind Willie Johnson, Ali Farka Touré, Robert Johnson, others

links: Blues Maps -- CIA World Factbook Reference Map: Africa -- Exploring Africa Unit at Michigan State -- Voyager's Golden Record

creative writing assignment: Compose a blues - draft due 8/25

week 2 - 8/25

Guest speaker from Career Center

Compose a blues assignment - Tour Ramsey Library Media Center studio

viewing/listening: The Soul of a Man (DVD); Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James

assigned reading: Cone, "The Blues: A Secular Spiritual."

week 3 - 9/1

Compose a blues assignment due -- "multimedia" portion due -- class presentations

topics: discuss Cone reading -- 19th c. African American music (overview) -- spirituals -- folk beliefs -- religious v. "sinful" music

viewing: Feel Like Going Home (Part 2) (DVD)

assigned reading: Jones, Blues People

written response #1: Response to Cone and Jones - due 9/8

week 4 - 9/8

Response to Cone and Jones due

topics: East Coast Piedmont Blues [project link] -- history/influence of the guitar -- finger-picking guitar style -- cultural geography -- Appalachia and black influences

viewing/listening: Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Etta Baker, Piedmont Blues: North Carolina Style, Folkways: Piedmont Blues

project: begin Musician Search Assignment - due 10/20

week 5 - 9/15

class discussion: What do mean by the liberal arts?

viewing: Folkways: Piedmont Blues

project: East Coast Piedmont Blues [project link] -- Intro to Library Research -- Musician Search Assignment - due 10/20

week 6 - 9/22

topics: the Mississippi Delta -- NPR story w/ Delta map -- country blues v. city blues [see handout] --sharecropping, peonage, agrarian South -- work songs -- song structure and form (call and response; AAB) -- diddley-bo -- slide guitar

listening/viewing: Son House, Bukka White, others
Feel Like Going Home (Part 1) (DVD)

Draft of Musician Search Assignment due next week - 9/29

week 7 - 9/29

topics: Delta continued -- Mississippi hill country -- juke joints -- Memphis -- Beale Street

listening/viewing: Deep Blues (DVD)

assigned reading: Ferris, Blues from the Delta, pp. 3-9, 25-43

written response #2 **OPTION A** - Based on the Ferris reading and videos you have watched in class, what factors (cultural? agricultural? racial? etc.) contributed to the development and intensity of the blues in the Delta region? **Due 10/27**

week 8 - 10/6 - no class - fall break

Wed., 10/12 - 8:30 p.m.
Buddy Guy at The Orange Peel

links: BuddyGuy.net

week 9 - 10/13

topics: intro to academic advising, integrative liberal studies, and The Catalog

Musician Search Assignment (due next week) -- hands-on research time -- using the Web template -- intro to FrontPage

week 10 - 10/20

Musician Search Assignment due

topics: Robert Johnson -- folk legends -- influences

viewing: Can't You Hear the Wind Howl? (DVD)

Begin Research Paper: Signifying the Blues - See Dr. Russell's syllabus - Due 12/1

written response #2 **OPTION B**: On the myth and mystique of Robert Johnson - **Due 10/27**
 

week 11 - 10/27

topics: the "great migration" -- rural, agrarian South -to- urban, industrialized North -- Muddy Waters

viewing: Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied (DVD)
 

week 12 - 11/3

guest speaker/performer: Tom Lawton, University General Counsel, and his National resonator guitar

topics: resonator guitar as precursor to electric guitar -- country blues v. city blues [see handout] -- classic blues /"ladies sing the blues" -- white audience v. black audience

listening: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, Casey Bill Weldon, Kokomo Arnold

viewing: Warming by the Devil's Fire (DVD) - part 1
 

week 13 - 11/10

viewing: Warming by the Devil's Fire (DVD) - part 2

topics: impact of radio - mass-mediated culture -- music business/marketing

the blues electrified -- Chicago -- Chess Records -- rhythm and blues -- rock 'n' roll

viewing: Maxwell St./John Lee Hooker clip from The Blues Brothers

assigned reading: Palmer, "Church of the Sonic Guitar," pp. 649-73.
 

week 14 - 11/17

topics: 1960's folk blues revival -- British Invasion

viewing: Red, White & Blues (DVD)

week 15 - 11/24 - no class - thanksgiving

week 16 - 12/1

topics: hip hop and oral tradition -- folk poetry

viewing: Godfathers and Sons (DVD)

Term paper due

final - Tues., 12/6 - 3 p.m.

[Back to syllabus]

Last updated 30 November 2005