In his 1936 study, The Negro and His Music, Alain Locke posed a number of then unanswered questions concerning the origins, transmission, and early development of blues music. Having unearthed 78 rpm recordings of "proto-blues," recorded in the field around the American South, blues historian Oliver proposes to answer many of those questions posed by Locke while simultaneously describing the circumstances under which the recordings were made and some of the personalities behind them. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)