Surprised you hadn't read this book before, Rick--it is a barnburner--
Many things told that haven't been told straight out before. Especially interesting are the stories about the muleskinners--Now you know why Phil Ochs sang, "Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of, Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of."


Meanwhile though, don't make the mistake, as some do, of assuming that all the white folks were bad, or, especially of assuming that country and old time musicians were all racists--the folks on the bottom, black and white, were treated equally badly, and often stuck beside each other--

There is a glistening bit of truth in the movie "Sullivan's Travels" where the white convicts are taken into the poor black church--

Those back woods Baptists and such had a tendency to believe that all were equal before the Lord, and then, as now, in the Holy Roller churches, black and whites held hands, sang, prayed together, and did
all of those "creepy" religious things, like speaking in tongues, being Slain by the lord, and even snake handling, for his glory--They sang gospel harmonies and invented rock and roll together, too--