Exploring a Rarely Researched Obsession

 Where Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches

Where Dead Voices Gather book cover

I have only read a few books by Nick Tosches, and this was one of the strangest. As a subject, the study of minstrel music is somewhat niche; even today, trying to analyze the implications of blackface and racial mimicry (or denigration) have a different role in scholarship that I’m not entirely sure that Tosches was pursuing at the time of this book. However, I think that through his study of the career of Emmitt Miller and minstrel music in general, he begins to interrogate some of these issues of racism and identity in minstrel music. Even more interesting is the kind of obsession with which Tosches pursues this subject, especially Emmitt Miller, who he questions whether he really existed or if he had some other identity or was a kind of combination of other performers. In this book, Tosches traces the history of minstrel music, exploring how it moved from live performances and shows, to eventual recordings, which seems ot have brought about its demise, although performers like Miller still toured and performed. Tosches tries to find evidence of Miller and what happened to him, while also tracing the arc of his career as a minstrel singer. I found this to be incredibly interesting and important to learn about. Despite being a pretense in performance, minstrel music helped to popularize and gospel, field hollers, blues and eventually jazz, making these musical styles more popular with a wider, record buying audience, and eventually paving the way for Black performers to gain more recognition, and phasing out white performers who relied on burnt cork. At times, the book became a little repetitive, and seemed like Toshes expanded a shorter piece or article for this book; however, I was really impressed with his ability to pursue a personal passion and intriguing mystery for him into something this large scale and complex. Furthermore, he raises important issues about representation, authenticity, and appropriation. This is probably not a book for casual music lovers, but rather for readers interested in learning more about the roots of popular music and how race, identity, recording and performing all factored into creating a wider exposure for blues, jazz, country and eventually rock music.