Holler Blues refers to

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

songs that are sung in the holler style, or the

field holler The field holler or field call is mostly a historical type of vocal work song sung by field slaves in the United States (and later by African American forced laborers accused of violating vagrancy laws) to accompany their tasked work, to communic ...

style. Field hollers are also referred to as whoopings, arhoolies, and hollers. They began as vocal communications among slaves on plantations, which were not expressed by a group but by individuals. Hollers were used to communicate feelings or messages, and, as

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

has written, were often melancholic and marked by vocal gymnastics. As the holler became rare, its aesthetic and qualities live on in blues songs.Alexander, Leslie. M. Rucker, Walter, Jr. eds. ''Encyclopedia of African American History''. ABC-CLIO (2010). . page 196.

References

Blues music genres {{Music-genre-stub