Stephen George Calt (March 14, 1946 – October 17, 2010) was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

researcher and writer, who wrote biographies of

Skip James Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James' early recordings ...

and

Charley Patton Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of America ...

. A teenage blues fan, Calt met Skip James at the 1964

Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...

. James allowed Calt to interview him numerous times over subsequent years, and the resultant tapes formed the basis of Calt's biography, ''I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues'', published in 1994, many years after James' death. In it, Calt says of their first meeting: "Had I known how our lives would intersect over the next four years, I would not have initiated that first conversation." In 1988, Calt's book, ''King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton'', was published. He also wrote ''Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary'' (2009), co-wrote '' R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country'' (2006), and wrote many articles and

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

on pre-war blues music. Calt died of

emphysema Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema. Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

, in 2010, aged 64. "Stephen Calt, R.I.P.", ''University of Illinois Press'', October 28, 2010
Retrieved 9 February 2019

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December 3, 2008 1946 births 2010 deaths American writers about music {{US-bio-writer-stub