The Memphis blues again

"Through the photographs of Ernest C. Withers we travel the decades down Beale Street, the main street of the Memphis music scene, and find ourselves on a journey into the heart and soul of America. The photographs span six decades of music and the community in which it flourished, but particularly the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He photographed the clubs, dance halls, auditoriums, recording studios, churches, and street of Memphis - home to one of the most vibrant music scenes in America and the reputed birthplace of the blues. Indeed, Ernest Withers recorded the images of this powerful musical legacy and what he called "the black side of life" mostly at a time when the segregation laws of Memphis contributed to the musical combustion centered around the now-legendary but once-infamous Beale Street."--BOOK JACKET.