The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy

Name: The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy
Author: Kevin D. Greene
ISBN: 9781469646503

by Kevin D. Greene

Published by The University of North Carolina Press

Publication date: September 28, 2018

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ISBN 9781469646503 | 242 Pages, 10 halftones, notes, bibl., index

242 Pages, 10 halftones, notes, bibl., index

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Tracing the evolving identity of a blues legend

Over the course of his long career, legendary bluesman William “Big Bill” Broonzy (1893–1958) helped shape the trajectory of the genre, from its roots in the rural Mississippi River Delta, through its rise as a popular genre in the North, to its eventual international acclaim. Along the way, Broonzy adopted an evolving personal and professional identity, tailoring his self-presentation to the demands of the place and time. His remarkable professional fluidity mirrored the range of expectations from his audiences, whose ideas about race, national belonging, identity, and the blues were refracted through Broonzy as if through a prism. Kevin D. Greene argues that Broonzy’s popular success testifies to his ability to navigate the cultural expectations of his different audiences. However, this constant reinvention came at a personal and professional cost. Using Broonzy’s multifaceted career, Greene situates blues performance at the center of understanding African American self-presentation and racial identity in the first half of the twentieth century.

Through Broonzy’s life and times, Greene assesses major themes and events in African American history, including the Great Migration, urbanization, and black expatriate encounters with European culture consumers. Drawing on a range of historical source materials as well as oral histories and personal archives held by Broonzy’s son, Greene perceptively interrogates how notions of race, gender, and audience reception continue to shape concepts of folk culture and musical authenticity.

Kevin D. Greene is the Nina Bells Suggs Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi.

“Greene challenges the typical construction of Broonzy, and the genre, by illustrating how the parameters of race, class, and geography influenced both the sound and interpretation of the tradition. . . . Greene’s multidisciplinary approach goes beyond biography and history.”—Arkansas Historical Quarterly

“The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy dissects our motivations for remembering or forgetting individual musicians and ethically documents social and cultural networks that can aid our ability to understand human creativity in relation to the passing of time.”—Journal of Southern History

“Broonzy’s guise—or guises, as Kevin D. Greene may insist in his new book The Invention and Reinvention of Big [Bill] Broonzy—may be worth taking the time to examine for what audiences wanted to hear from him and how they wanted to perceive him. . . . While not expressly a biography . . . or the blues-truth from Broonzy himself, Greene’s The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy will provide many reasons for Broonzy’s faces and places.”—ARSC Journal

“A wonderfully engaging and intellectually creative rendering of African American life, the city, and even U.S. foreign affairs through the life and music of Big Bill Broonzy.” — Davarian L. Baldwin, author of Chicago’s New Negroes

“By emphasizing Broonzy’s successive (and successful) eras of self-reinvention, Greene persuasively positions this blues musician as a prism for understanding shifts in racial, national, and global identity in the twentieth century.” — Joel Dinerstein, author of The Origins of Cool in Postwar America

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