t of that dynamic. And railroads in some manner were a part of the dynamic of the blues. In this regard, Oliver describes the "central stream" of "blues country" in terms of the railroads that were operating principally along the Mississippi River and its principal tributaries eastward, as far west as Dallas and as far north as Detroit (Oliver 12). New York (i.e., Harlem) was something of a law unto itself, owing in significant part to its commercial dominance.
Barlow, on the other hand, implies that the location of New Orleans at the delta of the Mississippi River was influential on blues form because the delta was a magnet for black laborers, whose songs were associated with the railroad. He quotes a memoir of one of those laborers: "People picking cotton were crying out, 'Oh, I'm a poor boy long way from home.' . . . People standing out for miles along the railroads and highways singing, 'Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more"' (Barlow 27). The important point is the agency of travel that the railroad provides, and this is consistent with reports that the formali
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