I was engrossed by this review of the new W.C. Handy biography (a major Blues founder) in this morning's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/books ... ss&emc=rss

I caught my eye because the reviewer is an author I like, but I was amazed to learn about this more polished and mainstream voice in the founding of the Blues. Handy was a trained musician and teacher, and he would capture the songs in musical notation and then publish them and copyright them.

At the time, he was famous and prosperous, but it seems his standing has diminished as later rock musicians and historians seemed to prefer the Robert Johnson archetype -- the scruffy poor guy walking the Delta with his guitar.