"Beginning in East Texas and journeying to the hot, dusty streets of Dakar, Senegal, Govenar traces the earliest roots of the music that became known as blues in the 1890s. Through a critical examination of the work of 19th and 20th century folklorists, historians, and popular writers, Govenar documents the transition from African-styled banjos and fiddles to the rudiments of blues guitar and the emergence of a distinctly Texas sound."

"As "race music" began to capture the interest of 1920s America, Blind Lemon Jefferson, a Dallas street musician from East Texas, emerged as the biggest selling blues singer in the country. Jefferson's guitar style and musical innovations spread quickly among his peers and were seminal in the growth of modern blues. Jefferson's profound impact. on the development of blues is probably most apparent in the music of Aaron ''T-Bone" Walker, who introduced the electric guitar as a lead instrument in blues in the 1940s, and over the years, influenced virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed him."--Jacket.