Upcoming book signings for “Long Lost Blues” by IMH Director Peter Muir

Long Lost Blues book


At these book signings, you will have an opportunity to:
  • Meet the author, Peter Muir
  • Hear Peter perform many unfamiliar and interesting blues live
  • Hear all about early blues
  • Purchase a signed copy of the book

Saturday, July 17, 4-5:30pm
Chappaqua Library


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“LONG LOST BLUES” Popular Blues in America 1850-1920

Now available at www.longlostblues.com
By IMH Director Peter Muir, Ph.D.

Publisher: Illinois University Press

Background & sales information: www.longlostblues.com

“Long Lost Blues was inspired by my passion for American roots music, a passion that in part inspired my move to the U.S. from England over a decade ago. My research suggested that early commercial blues was of great significance, a vitally important missing link in the evolution not only of blues itself, but also surrounding styles like jazz and popular song. Besides which, so much of it was great music!  Yet despite this, the genre had been almost totally neglected by scholarship. This book is a first step in remedying this situation, and will, I hope, bring wider attention to a genre of profound historical and musical importance.”
Peter Muir, PhD

Mamie Smith’s 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues” is commonly thought to signify the beginning of commercial attention to blues music and culture, but by that year more  than 450 other blues titles had already appeared in sheet music and on recordings. In this examination of early popular blues, Peter C. Muir traces the genre’s early history and the highly creative interplay between folk and popular forms, focusing especially on the roles W. C. Handy played in both blues music and the music business.

Long Lost Blues exposes for the first time the full scope and importance of early popular blues to mainstream American culture in the early twentieth century. Closely analyzing sheet music and other print sources that have previously gone unexamined, Muir revises our understanding of the evolution and sociology of blues at its inception.