stefan grossman posited and interesting theory about the popular "parlor guitar" music with upper class 19th century women, and suggest that blues was actually a folk music that originated from this. he makes a pretty strong case, particularly by showing how some of the most popular music books that came with these guitars included songs like sevastopol, which became a blues standard, as well as the common open tunings that were common to parlor guitar enthusiasts that later became common among blues players.
United States