Lyric Formulas as Traditional Compositional Processes in the Folk Blues: A Case Study of Furry Lewis

Abstract

Abstract The spontaneous combination of traditional, borrowed, and original lyric formulas is the central process by which traditional blues lyrics are composed. Building on theories of formulaic composition first developed by Milman Parry (1930) and Albert Lord (1960) and later adapted for the study of the blues by David Evans (1982, 2007, 2010), this article maps and compares blues lyrics by Furry Lewis as a means of better understanding this process. The article also identifies how Lewis’s idiosyncratic approach to this process makes his lyrics simultaneously typical and extraordinary.