Barry Pearson

Professor, English
Affiliate Faculty, School of Music
Affiliate Professor, American Studies

(301) 405-3780
bpearson@umd.edu

African American/African Diaspora
American
Film Studies and Cultural Studies
Musicology & Ethnomusicology
Mythology and Folklore

Dr. Barry Pearson specializes in folklore, African American traditional music, blues, and urban legends. Recognized as a key advocate and documentarian of the blues, he has published four books including Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Story Tellers and Robert Johnson Lost and Found, interviewed hundreds of blues artists, including John Lee Hooker, KoKo Taylor, Dr. Ross, H-Bomb Ferguson, Little Milton and Honey Boy Edwards; written over 195 articles, reviews, programs and recording liner notes. He has been a film, radio and television consultant, a photography exhibit curator and interviewed on subjects ranging from local urban legends to Robert Johnson. In 1993 he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Album: Roots of Rhythm and Blues: A Tribute to the Robert Johnson Era.

Pearson holds leadership roles including serving as President of The National Council for the Traditional Arts, an organization founded in 1933 and the nation’s oldest producing and presenting organization in America. He is a Contributing Writer for Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition, the foremost and the oldest blues periodical. He collaborates with organizations including the Smithsonian Institution, The Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Library of Congress. He has produced eleven CDs for Smithsonian Folkways and in 2026 his Classic Blues CD which spans half a century featuring foundational figures in blues history, was selected for their Smithsonian Folkways Vinyl Recordings.

He also presents and holds workshops at folk festivals around the country and is a performing musician who toured nationally and internationally as part of the Bowling Green Trio with John Cephas and Phil Wiggins for the USIA Arts in America Program throughout Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean. He has performed at venues as varied as The Library of Congress, The Chicago Blues Festival and the Folger Shakespeare Library.

For a closer, personal look at Pearson’s contributions to Blues and Roots history, see: https://www.thecountryblues.com/dr-barry-lee-pearson/

Books:

Robert Johnson: Lost and Found (Co-author)
Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Storytellers
Virginia Piedmont Blues: The Lives and Art of Two Virginia Blues Men
Sounds So Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story

Key Publications

195+ articles, reviews, programs and recording liner notes

Discography & Media

Production & Scholarship: Produced and wrote liner notes for eleven CDs for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, contributing extensive historical research.
In 2026 for the Smithsonian Folkways 70th Anniversary of its most influential recordings, Pearson’s CD, Classic Blues, was selected for their new Folkways Vinyl Reissues.
Media Expert: Appeared on dozens of radio and television programs, including Studio 360's "American Icons:Cross Road Blues, and PBS All Things Considered
Grammy Nomination [1993]: Nominated for a Grammy for the Best Traditional Blues Album: Roots of Rhythm and Blues: A Tribute to the Robert Johnson Era
Contemporary Acoustic Roots and Country Blues: “This website has one simple message: the acoustic blues is alive and well – nothing more, nothing less.” Contains 27 unpublished profiles of blues performers including Fontella Bass, Koko Taylor

Presenter/Workshop Leader

Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C.: For over 30+ years, Dr. Pearson has presented and run workshops at this annual event which honors the living cultural traditions and celebrates those who practice and perform them.
National Council for the Traditional Arts Beginning in 1978 presented artists and ran workshops the annual festivals taken place in various U.S. cities and for years in Wolf Trap, Virginia.
The Blues Project and the Blue Bird Blues Festival: For 25 years, Pearson was the Lead Scholar, a presenter and workshop leader for this festival held annually on the campus of the Prince Georges Community College.
Arts America Program: During a two year period toured with John Cephas and Phil Wiggins as performer, presenter and workshop leader introducing the regional style Piedmont Blues to thousands of people in Africa, the Caribbean and South and Central America.

Photo credit: Frank Matheis

Dates: Thursday, December 17, 2015 - 12:00

These life stories provide central insights into blues music and stand as a fascinating form of narrative in their own right. Barry Lee Pearson has conducted dozens of field interviews and collected over a hundred published autobiographies to present this collective portrait of bluesmen's careers as they themselves tell them: their musical learning, communities, work, pleasures, travels, triumphs, and crises.

Dates: Friday, October 1, 2010 - 12:00

ohnson's vast influence on twentieth-century American music, combined with his mysterious death at the age of twenty-seven, has allowed speculation and myths to obscure the facts of his life. The most famous of these legends depicts a young Johnson meeting the Devil at a dusty Mississippi crossroads at midnight and selling his soul in exchange for prodigious guitar skills.

Dates: Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 12:00

With just forty-one recordings to his credit, Robert Johnson (1911-38) is a giant in the history of blues music. Johnson's vast influence on twentieth-century American music, combined with his mysterious death at the age of twenty-seven, has allowed speculation and myths to obscure the facts of his life. The most famous of these legends depicts a young Johnson meeting the Devil at a dusty Mississippi crossroads at midnight and selling his soul in exchange for prodigious guitar skills.

In this volume, Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch examine the full range of writings about Johnson and sift fact from fiction. They compare conflicting accounts of Johnson's life, weighing them against interviews with blues musicians and others who knew the man. Through their extensive research Pearson and McCulloch uncover a life every bit as compelling as the fabrications and exaggerations that have sprung up around it. In examining Johnson's life and music, and the ways in which both have been reinvented and interpreted by other artists, critics, and fans, Robert Johnson: Lost and Found charts the broader cultural forces that have mediated the expression of African American artistic traditions.

Dates: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - 12:00

These blues stories, collected by Pearson for thirty years, are told in the blues musicians’ own words. The author interviewed over one hundred musicians, recording and transcribing their stories. These are stories from well-known musicians such as John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and Little Milton, and from more obscure artists such as Big Luck Carter, Henry Dorsey, Joseph Savage, and J. T. Adams. Pearson provides an introduction to the world of the blues and the genre of blues stories as well as brief biographies of the musicians. Divided into five sections—Blues Talk, Living the Blues, Learning the Blues, Working the Blues, and The Last Word—the book provides an overview of the inner workings of the blues tradition from the artist’s point of view.

Dates: Monday, August 1, 2005 - 12:00

Author and compiler Barry Lee Pearson calls this volume a "blues quilt." These stories, collected over thirty years, are told in the blues musicians' own words. Pearson interviewed over one hundred musicians, recording and transcribing their stories. These are stories from well-known musicians such as John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, and Little Milton, and from more obscure artists such as Big Luck Carter, Henry Dorsey, Joseph Savage, and J.T. Adams. Pearson provides an introduction to the world of blues and the genre of blues stories as well as brief biographies of the musicians.

Dates: Friday, June 1, 2001 - 12:00

The roots of much American music lie in the intensely personal art form of the blues. What bluesmen from W.C. Handy to B.B. King have told us about their lives has shaped America's perception of the blues. These life stories provide central insights into blues music and stand as a fascinating form of narrative in their own right. Barry Lee Pearson has conducted dozens of field interviews and collected over a hundred published autobiographies to present this collective portrait of bluesmen's careers as they themselves tell them: their musical learning, communities, work, pleasures, travels, triumphs, and crises.

Dates: Thursday, March 1, 2001 - 12:00

Documents the journey of two black American bluesmen, Archie Edwards and John Cephas, as they carry their musical heritage to the world.

Dates: Sunday, April 1, 1990 - 12:00

The book follows up on Pearson's collection of biographies of blues musicians, entitled "Sounds So Good To Me."

Barry Pearson

Research Expertise

Publications

Sounds So Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story

The roots of much American music lie in the intensely personal art form of the blues. What bluesmen from W.C. Handy to B.B. King have told us about their lives has shaped America's perception of the blues.

Robert Johnson: LOST AND FOUND (Music in American Life)

With just forty-one recordings to his credit, Robert Johnson (1911-38) is a giant in the history of blues music.

Robert Johnson: Lost and Found (Music in American Life)

With just forty-one recordings to his credit, Robert Johnson (1911-38) is a giant in the history of blues music.

Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers

Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers is what author and compiler Barry Lee Pearson calls a “blues quilt.”

Jook Right On: Blues Stories and Blues Storytellers

Author and compiler Barry Lee Pearson calls this volume a "blues quilt." These stories, collected over thirty years, are told in the blues
musicians' own words.

Sounds So Good to Me: The Bluesman's Story

The roots of much American music lie in the intensely personal art form of the blues. What bluesmen from W.C. Handy to B.B. King have told us about their lives has shaped America's perception of the blues.

Virginia Piedmont Blues: The Lives and Art of Two Virginia Bluesmen

Documents the journey of two black American bluesmen, Archie Edwards and John Cephas, as they carry their musical heritage to the world.

Virginia Piedmont Blues: The Lives and Art of Two Virginia Bluesmen

Documents the journey of two black American bluesmen, Archie Edwards and John Cephas, as they carry their musical heritage to the world.