Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues Includes a CD of original music Edition

“Captures the cadences of [the musicians’] spoken voices and the stories of their lives, and the DVD and CD that accompany the book allow us to hear their music. . . . If the unhealed wound of injustice is everywhere present in these stories, many of the people telling them, like Ferris himself, have refused to see their lives reduced to race and stubbornly resist despair.” — Harper’s Magazine

“For blues lovers who love their experience pure and strong. . . . Joyous, powerful and authentic, this package is designed to both inform and entertain those willing to plunge into this audacious world.” — Publishers Weekly

“An exceptional work, simultaneously one of the most beautiful and one of the most important that has ever appeared on the blues.” — ABS Magazine

“A captivating and diverse multimedia experience for fans and scholars of the blues and gospel music. . . . Highly recommended for anyone interested in the blues or Southern history.” — Library Journal starred review

“Personal, anecdotal, lively and full of the same spirit that helps bring blues music to life. A great mix of stories from some renowned blues greats alongside people known only in their neighborhoods.” — Publishers Weekly Indie Top 20 Selection

“Ferris . . . has given historians and music fans a gift.” — Anniston Star

“Delivers exactly what its title promises: the words and voices [Ferris] collected of Mississippians who had it rough and, in telling about it, changed American music forever.” — Endeavors

“An autobiographical account and, more importantly a transcription of the recollections, which Ferris recorded in the 1960s and ’70s. . . . The book comes with a set of Ferris’ original field recordings on CD. . . . [and] a DVD that collects the documentary files Ferris shot.” — Memphis Flyer

“The stories, collected during Ferris’ travels in his native lands of the Mississippi Delta, are real, raw, passionate, at times ribald and rough and at others sweeter than tupelo honey.” — Carrboro Citizen

“Ferris’ fieldwork proves to be every bit as important and impressive as the now-famous Mississippi recordings made by John and Alan Lomax in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. . . . Ferris’ audio and video recordings . . . are unpolished gems, further preserving pieces of Mississippi’s musical past that may have otherwise been forgotten.” — The Vicksburg Post

A powerful book that presents a deep and probing look at music, culture, and Mississippi at particularly important moments in history. The stories told here work on multiple levels, as biographical context for creativity and artistic power, but also as literary expressions of the highest order.–Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University