* *Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta* (1981)
* *Jelly Roll Morton: The Collected Piano Music* (1984)
* *A Tale of Two Cities: Memphis Rock and Roll and the Birth of Soul Music* (1992)
* *Rock & Roll: An Unruly History* (1995)
* *Blues & Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer* (2009)
* *Son House: The Complete Master Recordings, 1941–1942* (2010)
* *Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings* (2013)
* *Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings, 1941–1942* (2014)
* *How Music Works* (2020)
Fiction:
* *The Sound of His Own Voice: A Novel* (1991)