DELTA DAWN: At Reason, a look at “How Sears, Roebuck & Co. midwifed the birth of the blues.”

Found via Orrin Judd, who writes, “If you read about the birth of Rhythm and Blues–and Deep Blues by Robert Palmer, Mystery Train by Greil Marcus and Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick are three of the best–it’s astonishing how often a performer’s first guitar was ordered from the Sears catalogue.  For B.B. it replaced plucking a wire strung on the wall of a barn.