"A must for all who would more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America's most popular music, Negro in origin–blues based–but belonging to everybody" – Langston Hughes
"Blues People is American musical history; it is also American cultural, economic, and even emotional history. It traces not only the development of the Negro music which affected white America, but also the Negro values which affected white America." – Library Journal
"Blues People is not only a fresh, incisively instructive reinterpretation of Negro music in America, but it is also crucially relevant." – Nat Henthoff