The Original Blues: the Emergence of the Blues in African American Vaudeville is the third book in a trilogy documenting the emergence and establishment of African American music-making as a cultural and commercial practice distinct from that of white Europeans and their descendants in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Previous volumes (Abbott and Seroff 2002, 2007) highlighted first the development of music-making such as vocal quartets, string bands and brass ensembles, and subsequently the emergence of the minstrel show as a forum for integrating and humanising African American artists and entrepreneurs for the American public in the context of the ongoing socio-political racial and civil rights projects of the time.

This current work documents the development of African American vaudeville as a commercial theatre tradition following the codification of racial segregation by the United States Supreme Court in 1896, and the role of these performance and business practices in the development of musical professionals who would become known as blues artists. The authors collate and interrogate an impressive range of archival sources through which a coherent and compelling narrative is woven over the book's 420 pages, and successfully illustrate the gestures, texts, theatrical and touring environments which were the reality for vaudeville's performers, audiences and entrepreneurs.

The book is laid out much like a vaudeville performance itself, with chapters interspersed with ‘interludes’ which add ancillary commentary to the central narrative. Chapter 1 explains the birth of Southern vaudeville from 1899 to 1909 and brings to life a thriving world of performers working in both fixed theatres and the open air. The first interlude indicates the necessity of ‘separate but equal’ entertainment facilities for African Americans, which lays the groundwork for the emergence of the distinct style and content of African American vaudeville. Chapter 2 describes the life, death and untold legacy of the bluesman Butler ‘Stringbeans’ May in detail, which does much to enhance this performer's importance as a syncretic and influential figure in the presentation of the blues and American entertainment. Chapter 3 highlights the divergence between audience tastes and critical preferences as expressed by archival newspaper reviews in this book section's consideration of male blues singers in Southern vaudeville. Chapter 4 continues this gender-based approach by exploring the rise of the ‘Blues Queen’ as a seminal character in the development of blues music and blues culture. Performers Virginia Liston and Laura Smith are investigated as exponents of the style, and their expression of black womens’ social and political concerns in song to rapturous houses and receptive audiences is described vividly and ultimately positioned as a cornerstone of early Black feminism. The second interlude describes the establishment of the Theatre Owners’ Booking Association, and the book closes with Chapter 5 describing the emergence of the phonograph and the commercialisation of the blues between 1920 and 1926.

The presence and voices of primary audiences and performers are represented first-hand by both indications of various artists’ popularity and by reviews drawn from a consistent engagement with the output of newspapers and critics. At times, the sparring between performers and critics in print is visceral and pugnacious, indicating that the relationship between performers, critics and the public has not changed significantly in over 100 years. In their presentation of contemporary sources, the authors illustrate their narrative with an immersive style which is welcome in the telling of this story.

The success of this book is its ability to effectively convey the atmosphere of creativity, rivalry, claustrophobia, excitement and danger inherent in a developing creative milieu at a time of social and political upheaval for all of the participants. Performers rise and fall in prominence with dizzying speed, entrepreneurs establish theatres and empires with Barnum-like ambition and reach, only for these to crumble like the works of Ozymandias. More developed and consistent reference to contemporary social and political events for the contextual placement of the survey would have added further context to the narrative. Specifically, although the sinking of the RMS Titanic is mentioned in several places, as is African American athlete Jack Johnson's boxing victory over his white opponent, World War I and the Great Depression seem distant where, demonstrably, their influence on audiences, performers and entrepreneurs was significant enough to be consistently represented in contemporary song. The text is carefully and effectively illustrated throughout by many photographs and reprints of stage materials.

Writers such as Eric Lott (2013) and Lawrence Levine (2007) make detailed socio-political surveys of a similar historical moment in American cultural history, and Angela Y. Davis (1998) offers a scholarly feminist biographical perspective on Bessie Smith and Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey. Abbott and Seroff are distinct from these authors thanks to the wide-ranging scope of their survey, which is balanced with an impressive level of archival detail. The authors allow voices which might have been lost to time to be heard in a context which illustrates the individual and collective triumph and tragedy of the performer's own hour upon the stage. Taken as a single volume, this work is a significant achievement in the documentation of the development of this particular facet of the American entertainment industry. When considered as the final volume of the trilogy, it represents a valuable and objective survey of a rapidly receding and influential moment in cultural history.