Author Derek Bright is giving a guest seminar on Wednesday 6th April in which he will discuss the themes of his book, Highway 61 – Crossroads on the Blues Highway. Taking place at 2.00pm in Rutherford College, Seminar Room 4, all students and staff are warmly welcome to attend.
Highway 61 explores the development of the predominant blues narrative as seen from a white European perspective and deconstructs this on the journey south from Chicago to New Orleans. Building upon the work of David Grazian, Paul Garon, Nelson George, Elijah Wald, Marybeth Hamilton and Francoise N Hamlin, William G Roy, the book also references the work of African American novelists such as Richard Wright, whose work encompassed the great migration from the rural south and African American struggle. Highway 61 challenges the blues pilgrim to explore the dichotomy inherent in the modern blues narrative, which on the one-hand owes much to the American left prior to McCarthyism (e.g Robert Johnson’s first review was in New Masses and the first blues concert specifically aimed at a mixed race audience, ‘From Spirituals to Swing’ was organised by Columbia’s John Hammond, and, was funded by the Communist Party of America), while later undergoing a gradual sanitisation during the 1960’s blues revival, which continues to the present day. The latter process divorcing the history of blues music from the civil rights struggles that emerged from the same African American communities in the fifties and sixties.
About the speaker
Following his degree in Industrial Relations and Politics at the University of Kent, Derek Bright pursued a career in research with the Communications Workers Union. After many years working in industrial relations, Derek set up a Kent-based walking holiday company, and is “passionate about letting visitors know the stories and history behind the landscape”. His first book, ‘The Pilgrims Way’ explored medieval pilgrimage to Canterbury and social class. His second title, ‘Highway 61 – Crossroads on the Blues Highway’ is aimed at contemporary blues pilgrims journeying to the United States and offers a historical narrative of the blues.