"For forty years, white folks have had this myth about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil, and that says a great deal about white fantasies of blackness and its links to mysterious, sexy, forbidden powers."Back in 1936, black folks in the Delta had a different blues myth. It was that a guy who got good enough on guitar and learned how to play the latest hip sounds could get the hell out of the cotton fields and make enough money to move to Chicago, wear sharp new suits, and drive a Terraplane."

Books

• The Blues: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 0195398939.
• How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780195341546.
• Global Minstrels: Voices of World Music, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0415979293.
• Riding With Strangers: A Hitchhiker's Journey, Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 1556526059.
• Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street (co-authored with Van Ronk), Da Capo, 2005, ISBN 0306814072.
• Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Amistad, 2005, ISBN 0060524235.
• Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas, HarperCollins, 2002, ISBN 0060505103, also published in Spanish as Narcocorrido: un viaje dentro de la música de drogas, armas, y guerrilleros, Rayo, 2001, ISBN 0060937959.
• Josh White: Society Blues, University of Massachusetts Press, 2000, ISBN 1558492690.
• River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi (co-authored with John Junkerman), St. Martin's Press, 1998, ISBN 0312200595.
• Exploding the Gene Myth: how genetic information is produced and manipulated by scientists, physicians, employers, insurance companies, educators, and law enforcers (with Ruth Hubbard), Beacon Press, 1993, 1997, 1999; 1999 edition ISBN 0807004316.

• Street Corner Cowboys (CD, Black Rose Records, 2000)
• Dominic Kakolobango, African Acoustic (CD, Africassette, 2001); producer, acoustic guitar, liner notes
• Elijah Wald: Songster, Fingerpicker, Shirtmaker (LP, Reckless)

Liner notes, curatorship, etc.

• Snooks Eaglin: New Orleans Street Singer (Smithsonian/Folkways; supervised 2005 reissue)
• The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: "The Journey of Chris Strachwitz" (Arhoolie, 2002; co-produced and wrote liner notes)
• Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street (Rootstock, 2005; curated as a companion piece to the book of the same name)
• Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson (Yazoo Records, 2005; curated as a companion piece to Escaping the Delta)
• Corridos y Narcocorridos (Fonovisa, 2002; curated as a companion piece to Wald's Narcocorridos book)
• Josh White: Free and Equal Blues (Smithsonian/Folkways, 2000; curated as a companion piece to Josh White: Society Blues)
• The Mississippi: River of Song (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1999, two-CD set curated as a companion piece to the four-part television series and book of the same name)

• The Guitar Stylings of Joseph Spence (instructional DVD, Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop)