William Palmer

When the Levee Breaks

I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy

By

University of Chicago Press 308pp £18 order from our bookshop

Blues music emerged at the start of the twentieth century from the most disadvantaged people in the poorest part of the United States, the Deep South. The lives of the uneducated men and women from the black working class who were its singers went largely unrecorded. Only a few achieved fame and much of the writing about them is riddled with speculation and romantic invention. I Feel So Good is the first full biography of one of these major figures.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • From the Archive: Martyn Bedford on Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' ,
    • In 'Silenced Voices' reports the ongoing story of the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been… ,
    • The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity has long been agonised over. But what do we know about his victims?… ,
    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    Follow Us