STAGING THE BLUES: From Tent Shows to Tourism. By Paige A. McGinley. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2014.In reading Paige McGinley's book I expected that I would be exposed to new theoretical perspectives regarding the mass-mediation of the blues and blues culture. However, I never anticipated that it would draw me into deeper interrogations of the historiography of the blues, the attributes of blues performance, monikers of authenticity in blues culture, and issues of economic/cultural exploitation that are related to the blues tourism industry. The foundation of McGinley's study is the negation of the links between black and white theatrical traditions and the of the blues. In this text the word takes on many different contexts and raises questions regarding agency over who or what defines the act of on and offstage. She reveals the multilayered and complicated contexts of performance that envelop the blues that extend beyond sonic representations and have come to include the engagement of the body on the stage, images captured on film and through television, and the constructed lived blues experience.Those expecting McGinley to focus her thesis around the usual cast of characters invoked in blues historiography (e.g. Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters) will be surprised to discover that the narrative is centered around a collective of artists that includes some contemporary regional artists active in the Mississippi Delta region as well as Ma Rainey, Huddie Ledbetter, Bessie Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee. Through analysis of the different praxis advanced individually and collectively by these artists, the author addresses how the intersection of the blues with mainstream popular culture mediums and a growing fascination with blackness reflected a strong link between the genre and American theatrical traditions that were first explored through the minstrel stage and later through vaudeville and other forms of public entertainment. There are three main theoretical perspectives that frame this discussion: 1) the gendering of the blues and blues practice through the rejection of its theatrical roots; 2) cross-examination of the attributes of authenticity in blues performance; and 3) the construction of cultural and racial narratives of invisibility that result from the commodification of blues culture.The first chapter provides the reader with an early genealogical study of the confluence of the blues with black theater practices. While McGinley's work explores some common readings on the genesis of the vaudeville blues, she extends beyond these to include analysis of the debates regarding the politics of respectability in the Post-Reconstruction black community regarding the advancement of the blues, black women performers, and the tent show. …