With recent releases from Dan Treanor, Frankie Lee and Corey Harris, the exploratory theme of the New World-to-Africa blues odyssey is one that continues to be mined. Along comes Spencer Bohren with a completely new twist all together: trace a single song from slave times to its multiple reincarnated forms in the modern era. Bohren has done just that, not only playing the core tune, Charley Patton’s “Down Home Blues”—from its beginning as an African melody sung by a pre-Civil War Mississippi slave and his progeny—but interprets it in the succeeding hands of myriad, disparate stylists.

From its recorded inception by Patton, Bohren demonstrates the Son House version played it á la bottleneck slide guitar and how the nearby Memphis jug bands urbanized it with up-tempo dance rhythms. Therein lies a pivotal point of the story: its introduction into white society where it morphs into the repertoires of Appalachian string bands and country star Jimmie Rodgers. Bohren conjectures that, because of Rodgers’ immense popularity, Big Bill Broonzy heard a rendition of it and hence, furthered the song in race music circles where eventually it would be played in the fatty, electrified stylings of Chicago transplant Muddy Waters and the shuffling signature of Jimmy Reed. Finally, the tune wends its way into rock ‘n’ roll (Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones) and the burgeoning ’60s folk scene (Bob Dylan) from whence a teenaged Bohren embarked upon his lifelong quest.

Bohren not only connects the dots through captivating spoken word commentary but also masterfully renders it in each of the aforementioned emulated styles.