Bluesman

by Fred Steen

Bluesman is the story of a young man whose dream is to play, sing and preach the blues. It is the story of how it began for him on the cotton plantations of the deep South in the 1940s, about his growing up to pay his dues, about reaching up and grabbing iron to board the freight train north to the Promised Land of Chicago, about turning to the Hoo Doo woman when in trouble, about hearing the hammers ringing on the chain gang and of how sometimes the devil just wouldn’t ever seem to let him go. But more than telling about the life and times of one Roosevelt Lincoln Washington, aka Delta Sonny, Bluesman is the story about a tradition of living music, which was as part of peoples’ everyday lives as the air they breathed. A powerful and deeply moving novel – a celebration of life, its joys and suffering, as it was sung in the Blues.

175 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patronizingly racist, although I get the feeling that Steen thinks he's being complimentary in his ridiculous commentary.

The actual story line may be interesting to some, although it is unlikely. The narration is flawed.