"A companion book to the PBS documentary series Martin Scorsese presents the blues: a musical journey"--Intro.

A century of the blues / Robert Santelli -- The St. Louis Blues / W. C. Handy -- We wear the mask / Paul Laurence Dunbar -- Stones in my passway / Robert Johnson -- Dream boogie / Langston Hughes -- You know I love you / Lou Willie Turner -- Feel like going home / Martin Scorsese -- Prisoner's talking blues / Robert Pete Williams -- Son House / Christopher John Farley -- Hellhound on my trail / Robert Johnson -- The Blues Avant-Garde / Luc Sante -- The Levee-camp holler / Alan Lomax -- Muddy Waters / Robert Gordon -- A riff on reading Sterling Plumpp's poetry / John Edgar Wideman -- Thank god for Robert Johnson / Elmore Leonard -- Howlin' Wolf / Greg Tate -- Jim Dickinson and his son Luther on coming of age in the North Mississippi hill country -- Why I wear my mojo hand / Robert Palmer -- Ali Farka Tuore: sound travels / Farley -- French talking blues / Catherine Nedonchelle -- Warming by the devil's fire / Charles Burnett -- Bessie Smith / Farley -- Ma Rainey / Sterling Brown -- A night with Bessie Smith / Carl Van Vechten -- Billie Holiday / Hilton Als -- Early downhome b lues recordings / Jeff Todd Titon -- Let's get drunk and truck: a guide to the party blues / James Marshall -- Remembering Robert Johnson / Johnny Shines -- The devil's son-in-law / Ralph Ellison -- Hoboing with Big Joe / David "Honeyboy" Edwards -- The little church / William Faulkner -- Down at the cross / James Baldwin -- Redemption songn / W. E. B. Du Bois -- The Road to Memphis / Richard Pearce -- Furry's blues / Stanley Booth -- Recalling Beale Street in its glory / Will Shade -- Bobby "Blue" Bland [Bobby Bland]: love throat of the blues / Robert Gordon -- The river's invitation / Percy Mayfield -- On the road with Louis Armstrong / David Halberstam -- Sam Phillips on gutbucket blues -- Wolf live in '65 / Robert Palmer -- The soul of a man / Wim Wenders -- Visionary blindness: Blind Lemon Jefferson and other vision-impaired bluesmen / Farley -- Blind Willie McTell / Bob Dylan -- Locating Lightnin' / Samuel Charters -- Henry Thomas: our deepest look at the roots / Mack McCormick -- Janie and Tea Cake / Zora Neale Hurston -- Photographer Peter Amft on J. B. Lenoir -- Driving Mr. James / John Szwed -- Clifford Antone on livin' and lovin' the blues -- Jimmie Vaughan on being born into the blues -- John Lee Hooker -- Godfathers and sons / Marc Levine -- Muddy, Wolf, anad me: adventures in the blues trade / Peter Wolf -- Chicago pep / Robert Palmer -- Memphis Minnie and the cutting contest / Farley -- Happy new year with Memphis Minnie / Langston Hughes -- Big Bill / Studs Terkel and Jeff Scheftel -- Chicago blues, sixties style / Charters -- Getting a hit blues record / Willie Dixon (with Don Snowdon) -- Toure -- Between Muddy and the Wolf: guitarist Hubert Sumlin / Paul Trynka -- Me and Big Joe / Michael Bloomfield (with S. Summerville) -- Peter Amft on Chicago bluesmen -- Buddy Guy arrives in Chicago / Trynka -- The Gift / Paul Oscher -- How I met my husband / Suzan-Lori Parks -- Red, white and blues / Mike Figgis -- Eric Clapton / Peter Guralnick -- Big Bill Broonzy / Farley -- Val Wilmer -- The Rolling Stones / Stanley Booth, Richard Hell -- Piano blues and beyond / Clint Eastwood -- Our ladies of the keys / Farley -- On learning to play the blues / Otis Spann -- Powerhouse / Eudora Welty -- Ray Charles discovers the piano / Michael Lydon -- Finding Professor Longhair / Jerry Wexler -- Dr. John and Joel Dorn on New Orleans piano styles -- Marcia Ball on Big Easy blues -- Chris Thomas King's 21st century blues / Swenson -- Shemekia Copeland on her melting pot blues -- Anthony DeCurtis -- David Ritz -- Blues: the footprints of popular music / Chuck D -- Contributors, credits.