Give My Poor Heart Ease

I also learned that moments captured through media are never fully heard or seen until later, when the photograph is developed, the tape played back, the filmviewed. Each time I hear these recordings, look at the photographs, or watch the films, I notice new details that remind me that these worlds of storytelling and music are richly textured and never stop speaking to me.

Q: Why did you decide to enhance the book with a CD and DVD? Ideally, how would you like your reader to experience this multimedia introduction to the blues?

A:Thanks to the marvel of technology, folklorists today can have their cake and eat it too. We can merge the printed word with sound recordings and motion pictures in ways that make this book dynamic and exciting. The reader of my book first meets the speakers as he or she reads their narrative and sees their photographs. They then hear each person's voice as they speak and sing on the CD, and they come face to face with the speakers and singers in films as they perform.

As a folklorist, I used sound recordings, photography, and film to capture the full impact of stories and music. Until now, however, I never had the luxury of merging all of these media into a single package. The CD and DVD deepen the relationship of the reader to the book. Through sound recordings and film, they intensify the relationship of the reader to each speaker and allow the reader to meet the speakers in significantly expanded ways.

Q: Other than in the introduction and framing remarks for each section, you chose not to include your voice in the published text or in the films and sound recordings that accompany the book. Why not?

A: I feel that this is a book about each of the speakers, and my own voice is important only as it describes how we met and sets the context of our visit. I believe that the uninterrupted narrative voice of each speaker constitutes a folkloric version of the dramatic monologue in literature. Through the narrative voice of a single speaker, poets and writers like Robert Browning, Ernest Gaines, Alice Walker, and Eudora Welty capture intensely powerful moments in their work. I try to achieve a similar effect by framing each section of the book with the voice of the speaker or speakers whom I recorded.

Q: One of your first interview subjects was your family's black housekeeper, Mary Gordon.Shortly before her death, she said, "You know, you are my white child." How did your special bond with Mary Gordon influence your work?

A: Growing up in a home where I spent many hours each day with Mary Gordon was an important part of my childhood. Her voice, her sense of humor, her stories, and her hymns were familiar, beloved parts of my experience. In many ways, this book is, by extension, a tribute to the history and culture of Mary Gordon. While she was an important part of my family, she also had an experience vastly different than my own.  Her ancestors were slaves who worked the land around our home. Her ties to both the Rose Hill community and to Africa shaped me in profoundly important ways.

Q: Some of the most arresting images in the DVD are the scenes from Parchman Penitentiary, where the inmates of the Mississippi penal farm chop wood to the rhythm of work chants. How did you twice gain access to "Camp B," one of the largest black camps in this segregated system?

A: I was never sure how or why I was allowed into Parchman's "Camp B,"  and I never asked. Set apart from the main complex of Parchman, the camp is located several miles to the north east of the town of Lambert, Mississippi. On my first visit, I thought that I might have been mistaken for another visitor who was coming on an official visit. In both cases, however, I explained that I was writing "a book" on music and wanted to record prison work chants. The officials accepted this explanation for my visit and allowed me total access to the inmates. During my first visit in the late sixties, I recorded andfilmed work chants outside the prison buildings and a sermon by a white evangelical preacher in the dining hall that was followed by a capella gospel singing led by an inmatenicknamed "Flat Top" who sang with a beautiful high pitched tenor voice.

Q: B.B. King is featured on your book's cover and you have said that he is emblematic of all blues musicians. What will we learn from your book that we might not already know about this man whose name is synonymous with the blues?

A: B.B. King has a rare gift of humility and human warmth. In this interview he describes his childhood years and explains that his career as a blues singer is his way of reaching out to audiences whom he sees as his extended family. The genuine warmth that King brings to his musical performances allows him to communicate with fans throughout the world. From Indianola to Moscow and beyond, he touches the hearts of his audiences in profound ways.

We also learn that King moved from church music to blues when he discovered that blues fans were willing to pay to hear his music. And in his career as a bluesman, King turned to jazz performers like Django Reinhardt, as well as to blues performers like Lonnie Johnson for his inspiration.

Q: Are there any blues greats that you're still hoping to interview?

A: While I interviewed him earlier, I would love to spend more time with Bobby Rush, one of the most amazing performers I have encountered. I regret never interviewing Bo Diddley before his death. We visited over breakfast at Smitty's Restaurant after his last concert in Oxford, Mississippi, and spoke about his childhood in McComb, Mississippi. He explained how he learned to play the one-strand-on-the-wall, also known as the diddy bow, from which he took his name.

Q: How has the blues world changed in the last forty years?

A: The blues world has changed dramatically over the past forty years. The most startling changes have taken place in the Mississippi Delta, where much of this book is set. The B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi is a thirteen million dollar facility that pays tribute to B.B. King and to the rich history of blues in the Delta. A steadily growing number of blues markers establish blues trails where visitors can learn about the homes, clubs, and graves of celebrated blues artists. And blues clubs in towns and cities throughout the Delta feature live music performed by local artists each week.

Blues are also featured at the Grammy Awards, in House of Blues clubs, on television, and in feature films by directors like Martin Scorsese. Townes Van Zandt once remarked that "There are two types of music: blues and zippedydoodah." The musical landscape of our world today is deeply marked by the blues. And painters, photographers, poets, and writers are inspired by the blues in their work. Classical composer Lawrence Hoffman's "Blues For Harp, Oboe, And Violoncello" reflects his impressive knowledge of both country and urban blues styles.

It is moving and a bit surprising to think how a music that began in isolated, rural Mississippi has transformed our consciousness. The music helps us deal with tragedy and sadness in a positive, healing way.

Q: Who is on your watch list of new blues artists?

A: New blues artists include the children of important blues musicians. Pat Thomas in Leland, Mississippi, is following in the footsteps of his father James Thomas. He recently released a CD of his recordings and also makes clay sculpture of birds, animals, and human faces that are inspired by his father's work.

Shemekia Copeland, daughter of singer Johnny Copeland, has established an impressive musical career and is following in her father's footsteps. And Otha Turner's granddaughter Sharde Thomas is continuing the fife and drum musical tradition of her grandfather.

Q: What advice would you offer a young folklorist or documentarian or anyone aware of a "world waiting to be noticed"?

A: My counsel to students is to follow your heart. If you love what you do, you will do it well. There are so many worlds "waiting to be noticed." We simply have to open our hearts and our minds and listen to the voices who are waiting to speak with us. These voices are like sign posts along a highway that will lead us on a journey of discovery. It is exciting to pursue this work, to throw your full energy into capturing and understanding the worlds you pursue. The work will become a lifelong journey and will shape you in lasting ways. It makes you a better, more sensitive person.As you learn to walk in the shoes of others, you experience the double consciousness that blacks have understood for generations.

Q: I've heard that your book is the inspiration for a theatrical production. When can we look forward to seeing it?

A: University of North Carolina theatre producer Joseph Megel and folklore students WhitneyBrown and Ashley Melzer have created a stage production based on the speakers in this book. The production will feature a series of readings enhanced with field recordings, photographs, films, and live performances that will premiere during the comingyear. 

And an exhibition of the photographs in the book will open at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans in conjunction with the 2010 New Orleans Jazz Festival.