SOURCE: "That's Why They Call It the Blues," American Theatre, Vol. 13, No. 4, April, 1996, pp. 18-23.

In the following essay, Taylor illustrates how Wilson uses blues music and blues artists to enhance his depictions of the African American experience in his works.

Seven Guitars begins with a blues refrain: "Does anybody here want to try my cabbage …?" The lyrics could have dropped out of the insinuating mouth of Bessie Smith herself. "All the attitudes of my characters come straight out of the blues," says August Wilson, without equivocation. "'The blues' is the bedrock."

It was when Wilson was 20 years old and living in a boarding house in Pittsburgh, across the street from a second-hand store where he could buy 78-RPM records for a nickel apiece, that he came across a bootleg copy of "Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues."

"Nobody in town can bake a sweet jelly roll like...