Studying the Blues can give students deeper understanding of the rural and urban African-American culture.
The curricula supplied here was compiled with the assistance of the National Music Foundation (http://www.nmc.org) and its American Music Education Initiative.
Students can be shown the essential part these rural lyrics played in the African-American oral traditions. Lacking an educational system, these early country blues men and women created beautiful poetry that responded to the conditions of their world. Sometimes the lyrics expressed the anger they could not speak. Other times, they painted a vivid picture of African-American life in those fields.
