My Daddy's Blues

Born near a dusty cement plant in the northeast Missouri village of Ilasco, close to Mark Twain Cave, Hannibal native Gregg Andrews draws on the voice of a child, the voice of a songwriter, and the voice of a historian to take readers on an intimate lyrical journey through the turbulent childhood of a white, rural, working-class boy in the 1950s and 60s. A tiny three-room house on the Mississippi River-a house that lacked indoor plumbing-provides the author's lookout perch on the American dream. Bottled up in that sweatbox house was a family of five struggling to cope with a father's alcoholism, war demons, crippling illness, and early death. My Daddy's Blues captures a riverbank childhood that despite its dark and dangerous aspects was rich in experience, grounded in strong family and community networks and guided by an incredibly strong mother. It was a childhood that fueled imagination, creativity, and a burning desire for education as an escape from the plant that helped send father and grandfather to early graves. An education that broke down walls of racism and parochialism. Set to a bluesy songwriter's rhythm and rhyme, the memoir celebrates belly laughs, storytelling, resilience, resistance, and triumph over adversity. It does not celebrate Tom Sawyer as the enduring symbol of Hannibal, Twain's boyhood home. Rather, it champions Huck Finn, who chose Hell over conventional morality, and it elevates the humanity of Jim and decries his bondage and its twisted legacies.