AVAILABLE NOW!

Deep Inside the Blues:

Photographs and Interviews

Foreword by William R. Ferris

Series: American Made Music Series

A collection of dazzling black-and-white photographs and in-depth interviews that illuminate the lives and times of three generations of blues musicians.

"Deep Inside the Blues is truly historic. It is a stunning tribute to the musicians and to Cooper for her vision and persistence in gathering their photographs and oral histories."

- William R. Ferris, author of I AM A MAN: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960–1970

"What a masterpiece, the photos and in-depth stories are amazing. I do believe this book will take its place with the greatest Blues books. I already learned much more about my close friends than I ever knew. She presented their stories so deeply and clearly."

- Bob Margolin, Blues Guitarist, Singer and Songwriter, former member of Muddy Waters' Band

“Margo Cooper has assembled an exquisite book of photography and oral histories…What makes this book special is that every time I open this book, I find a picture to linger over or an intriguing sentence said by the subject about hard living or blues truths or a personal note from Cooper that further illuminates a detail. Through her photographs and words, Margo Cooper captures that elusive Southern sense of place writers have spent lifetimes exploring that artistry…It’s a book I will not stop recommending.”

-Art Tipaldi, Editor, Blues Music Magazine

"Any serious fan of post World War II Mississippi blues will want this… If you’d like to learn, deeply, about the sounds and lives of Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Sam Carr, Cedric Burnside, Little Joe Ayers, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Eden Brent, T-Model Ford, Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Super Chikan, and more—and increase your knowledge and appreciation of African American and blues culture—this is the place."

-Ted Drozdowski/Editorial Director, Premier Guitar

"Deep Inside the Blues tells stories of blues legends in the artists’ own words. Author and photographer Margo Cooper spent decades chronicling the blues musicians and music that struck her “like a bolt of lightning.” Cooper makes ample use of the access she gained through mutual trust and friendship as a faithful chronicler of the blues and the lives of its artists."

- Read the full piece by Jim Beaugez in

Magnolia Tribune

"Photographer and oral historian Cooper’s new book is a testament to the power of music, especially the brawn of the blues. A rich combination of black-and-white photos and interviews with blues musicians, this book allows each performer a chance to tell their story in their own voice. . . . A magnificent oral history of the healing power of blues music."

- Read the full review by Leah K. Huey,

Library Journal (starred review)

“Cooper's images remind us that the blues is as much attitude or way of life as art form. . . . She sees herself as an advocate for the music, a celebrant, but not an apologist. Clearly, her photographs are a labor of love."

- Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

"Deep Inside the Blues avoids the culture-wide tendency to romanticize and elegize its subjects as ‘the last surviving bluesmen’ or view them solely as conduits for the pain of racial oppression. Instead, Cooper’s interviews offer a nuanced celebration of the musicians she has come to know—indomitable individuals, storytellers and healers both, who have etched themselves into the world’s imagination."

- Adam Gussow, author of “Whose Blues? Facing Up to Race and the Future of the Music”, Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi

"The urgent need to preserve a cornerstone of American culture led folklorists like John Lomax to travel the country documenting early blues recordings and writers like Amiri Baraka to publish Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Although Margo Cooper did not know it when she began more than twenty years ago, she has followed that tradition and produced a documentary project that archives the oral and visual histories of blues musicians, their families, and communities in northern Mississippi and the Delta."

- Fayemi Shakur, New York Times Lens blog

“Deep Inside the Blues will stand as important work in the history of blues documentation.”

-Scott Barretta, Living Blues #289 March 2024

“That Margo had the time, the connections, and commitment to engage such muscial greats was clearly a huge undertaking and says a lot about her individual style in enabling these musicians to describe to her their personal and musical lifestyles. It comes highly recommended and importantly adds to the information on many of these artists.”

-Mike Stephenson, Blues & Rhythm Issue #383 April/May 2024

“You really have done some incredible work and the book is very impressive.”

-Tim Duffy, Founder and President of Music Maker Foundation

“Margo Cooper stands as a guardian of this vanishing world, her lens capturing moments frozen in time, preserving a legacy threatened by the relentless march of progress. In her photographs, she immortalizes not just the music, but the spirit of an era—a testament to the human condition and the enduring power of the blues.

Through her lens, Margo has borne witness to the indomitable spirit of these musicians, whose resilience in the face of adversity is reflected in every note they play. Her photographs serve as a poignant testament to the enduring power of music as a source of solace, strength, and defiance in the face of exploitation and hardship. In capturing their stories, she immortalizes not only the struggles and triumphs of these artists but also the broader narrative of human endurance in the face of adversity.”

-Tony Medeiros, sandboxworld.com

“Deep Inside the Blues is the most beautiful and touching book I’ve read in a long time…My rating is 5 out of 5 stars.”

-Janny C, medium.com

“Magnifique livre sur le blues du Mississippi”

-Daniel León, lestempsdublue.com

Description:

Deep Inside the Blues collects thirty-four of Margo Cooper’s interviews with blues artists and is illustrated with over 160 of her photographs, many published here for the first time. For thirty years, Cooper has been documenting the lives of blues musicians, their families and homes, neighborhoods, festivals, and gigs. Her photographic work combines iconic late-career images of many legendary figures including Bo Diddley, Honeyboy Edwards, B. B. King, Pinetop Perkins, and Hubert Sumlin with youthful shots of Cedric Burnside, Shemekia Copeland, and Sharde Thomas, themselves now in their thirties and forties. During this time, the Burnside and Turner families and other Mississippi artists such as T-Model Ford, James “Super Chikan” Johnson, and L. C. Ulmer entered the national and international spotlight, ensuring the powerful connection between authentic Delta, Hill Country, and Piney Woods blues musicians and their audience continues.

In 1993, Cooper began photographing in the clubs around New England, then in Chicago, and before long in Mississippi and Helena, Arkansas. On her very first trips to Mississippi in 1997 and 1998, Cooper had the good fortune to photograph Sam Carr, Frank Frost, Bobby Rush, and Otha Turner, among others. “The blues come out of the field,” Ulmer told Cooper. Seeing those fields, as well as the old juke joints, country churches, and people’s homes, inspired her. She began recording interviews with the musicians, sometimes over a period of years, listening and asking questions as their narratives unfolded. Many of the key blues players of the period have already passed, making their stories and Cooper’s photographs of them all the more poignant and valuable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Margo Cooper is a photographer and oral historian working in the classic documentary tradition. She is a longtime contributing writer and photographer for Living Blues magazine. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Lensblog.

Author website: https://www.margocooper.com