Blues Books
Listing and reviews of the blues in literature

"The All-Music Guide To The Blues"
Ed. by Cub Coda, Michael Erlewine, et al
(Miller Freeman Books, 1996)

The blues have gotten such a bad reputation in the last decade or so, under a cloud of bland "beer-ad" bands, that it's nice to see a book like this which takes in all the hi-tech drek along with the roots music, from A to Z. Dozens of blues mavens contribute reviews and essays, including appendices on regional scenes, piano blues, jug band blues, women in the blues, and a handy bibliography for those of us who still want more reading material, even after such a smorgasbord as this. Highly recommended to hardcore fans and the idly curious alike.

"MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide"
ed. Leland Rucker
(Visible Ink Press, 1998)

Heavy on the beer-ad blues side of things, with sidebars that talk about "monster solos," and a CD sampler that comes from the infamous House of Blues. You see where this is leading, right? Nonetheless, this also includes admirable entries on artists such as Sammy Price, Victoria Spivey and Buddy Johnson, who might otherwise languish outside of the canon. Appendices include listings of blues festivals, labels and artist web sites, which may be useful to the up-an-coming blues hound. Readers may also want to check out MusicHound's R&B guide, which is listed below.

"MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide"
ed. Gary Graff, Josh Freedom du Lac, and Jim McFarlin
(Visible Ink Press, 1998)

This includes a disproportionately hefty dose of hip-hop and rap albums, which makes sense, considering the intense recent cross-pollination of hip hop with cheesy quiet storm "soul" (which is also heavily emphasized in this volume). However, the emphasis is clearly more contemporary than historical -- for example, the reference sidebars are entitled "Word Up!", which seems tacky as well as rather dated. Modern artists such as Bobby Brown, Sheena Easton, and Toni Braxton get equal -- if not superior -- billing with soul music touchstones such as Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and the Stax/Volt and Motown crowds. Very few pre-rock artists are included -- Cab Calloway and Big Joe Turner make it in, for example, but not Buddy Johnson or Floyd Dixon, and several classic 60s soul stars such as Garnett Mimms are also omitted. Finally, while most of the big-name blues shouters such as Wynonie Harris, Amos Milburn and Louis Jordan have entries, practically none of their great gospel counterparts are included. This really is a disgrace, as well as a short-sighted, culturally revisionist nod to contemporary tastes (which do not embrace the preachin' and shoutin' religious side of African-American music). Rest assured that without Bessie Griffin, Clara Ward, the Soul Stirrers, or Rev. James Cleveland, there would never have been a BeBe Winans, Mariah Carey or Aretha Franklin -- much less a Parliament, Lauryn Hill or KRS-1. As with other MusicHound books, this also provides useful appendices, including fan sites, etc., and the companion CD is a nice (if stingy) sampler of some of gems from the Mercury Records catalog. But if Wu Tang or Billy Oceans are not your "R&B" thing, you may wish to be wary of this tome.

"Rollin' And Tumblin' - The Postwar Blues Guitarists"
Ed. by Jas Obrecht
(Miller Freeman Books, 2000)

By "postwar blues", we mean the upbeat, amplified, often aggressive material that many popologists see simply as the roots of rock'n'roll. But for blues fans, the muscular power and driving passion of the bluesmen is enough by itself, and this collection of articles and interviews profiling many of the genre's greatest players, is manna from heaven for the folks who could care less what happened after Elvis shook his little heinie on the Ed Sullivan show. This is a classicist's view of the blues -- standardbearers such as Otis Rush, Muddy Waters and BB King get multiple entries, wild West Coast and Texas bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and Clarence Gatemouth Brown also get their propers, and while the main emphasis is on the dudes who plugged in, acoustic players such as Fred McDowell also get a nod or two. The book draws on a variety of writers, and reflects a variety of interviewing and narrative styles -- most of the material originally appeared in Guitar Player magazine, but while some technical points are investigated, the book is an even better source of information about the players themselves -- their personalities, their stories, their world view. A true blues fan should enjoy this book quite a bit!

"Children Of The Blues - 49 Musicians Shaping A New Blues Tradition"
By Art Tipaldi
(Backbeat Books, 2002)

The canon of old-school blues masters is pretty well set: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, etc., etc. Here's a look at a few dozen "younger" artists -- some of who are actually pretty long in the tooth by now (Charlie Musselwhite, Taj Mahal, Kim Wilson and John Hammond, Jr.) and some who really are fairly new on the scene, such as Kelly Joe Phelps and Keb' Mo'... Tipaldi is ay his best in longer interview pieces when he gets someone genuinely talkative, such as Marcia Ball, and can let them carry the show... For anyone keen on keeping up with the newer generation(s) of blues players, this may be a nice book to check out. Sure are a lot of artists profiled here!

"Honkers And Shouters: The Golden Years Of Rhythm & Blues"
By Arnold Shaw
(Collier Books, 1978)

A groundbreaking work documenting the careers of some of the greatest R&B artists, as well as the labels that brought their music to the jukeboxes and turntables of America. Rhythm & Blues's reputation has suffered mightily in recent years -- that they call the soft-soul pop of the post-disco generation "R&B" is a joke of tremendous historical proportions, but looking back to the real glory days of Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, Ike Turner, Clyde McPhatter and the like, there's no denying that "golden years" is the right term to use. This book is admirably inclusive, tracking the adaptations of bluesmen and early rock'n'rollers to the new, sleeker sounds that came out of Motown, Philly and Mussell Shoals... The profiles of various labels and A&R men are particularly welcome, since this book largely documents the day when success in the music business still depended on having "an ear" and the magic that happened when guys could still spot real talent. A good read -- definitely worth tracking down a copy.

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country
"Harry N. Abrams, Inc." (November 1, 2006)

Anyone who knows R. Crumb’s work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to- mid-1980s. Now they are packaged together for the first time in book form, along with an exclusive 21-track CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself (featuring original recordings by Charley Patton, “Dock” Boggs, “Jelly Roll” Morton, and others). A bio of each musician is provided, along with a full-color original illustration by the cartoonist. A characteristically idiosyncratic tribute by an underground icon to the musical innovators who helped inspire him, R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a must-have collection for Crumb aficionados, comics fans, and music lovers alike.

Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues
William Ferris
Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the speakers and their communities and including a dual CD/DVD that presents his original field recordings and films, the book features more than twenty musicians who relate frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South.
Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. From celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon to artists known best in their neighborhoods, they express the full range of human experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful.
In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.

Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell
Michael Gray
Chicago Review Press

Blind Willie McTell may be the most important Georgia bluesman to be recorded in the first half of the 20th century, but so little information about him has survived that, for Gray, who's previously written about Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa, getting the story is itself part of that story, making this less a biography of the blind musician than a memoir of the effort to uncover his past. At its best, the results are colorful anecdotes about Gray and his status as a British tourist in rural Georgia, where being neither a Yankee nor a white Southerner usually makes it easy for him to get along (save for one disturbing encounter with a state prison security detail). At other times, however, Gray pads his account with arguably superfluous details, including descriptions of the public libraries he visited during his research. He is quick to acknowledge where the facts leave off and his speculations begin, and unafraid to offer critical judgment, especially when it comes to evaluating the racist culture in which McTell lived. Those who were hoping for a definitive biography of McTell may be disappointed, but enough of his story pokes through for even nonblues fans to grasp his enduring appeal.

Barrelhouse Blues: Location Recording and the Early Traditions of the Blues
Paul Oliver
Basic Civitas Books

In the 1920s, Southern record companies ventured to cities like Dallas, Atlanta, and New Orleans, where they set up primitive recording equipment in makeshift studios. They brought in street singers, medicine show performers, pianists from the juke joints and barrelhouses. The music that circulated through Southern work camps, prison farms, and vaudeville shows would be lost to us if it hadn’t been captured on location by these performers and recorders.
Eminent blues historian Paul Oliver uncovers these folk traditions and the circumstances under which they were recorded, rescuing the forefathers of the blues who were lost before they even had a chance to be heard. A careful excavation of the earliest recordings of the blues by one of its foremost experts, Barrelhouse Blues expands our definition of that most American style of music.

Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary
Stephen Calt
University of Illinois Press

This fascinating compendium explains the most unusual, obscure, and curious words and expressions from vintage blues music. Utilizing both documentary evidence and invaluable interviews with a number of now-deceased musicians from the 1920s and '30s, blues scholar Stephen Calt unravels the nuances of more than twelve hundred idioms and proper or place names found on oft-overlooked "race records" recorded between 1923 and 1949. From "aggravatin' papa" to "yas-yas-yas" and everything in between, this truly unique, racy, and compelling resource decodes a neglected speech for general readers and researchers alike, offering invaluable information about black language and American slang.

Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf
Segrest and Hoffman
Da Capo Press

Billed as the first full-length biography of Howlin' Wolf, the strapping (six-foot-three and 300 pounds) bluesman with the lyrical growl, this engrossing study is a must-have for blues-concerned collections and, indeed, a worthy acquisition for any pop music collection. The Wolf (Chester Burnett offstage) stands with Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker among the giants in the blues pantheon. A student of Charlie Patton and the first Sonny Boy Williamson, he rose from the poor sharecropper's life that was pretty much obligatory for blacks in Mississippi's Delta region to stardom in first Memphis and then Chicago. He helped define the blues sound that many of the English-invasion rock bands of the 1960s based their styles on. A worthy shelf mate for Robert Gordon's Muddy Waters biography, Can't Be Satisfied (2002), Segrest and Hoffman's book is a distinctive survey of the Wolf's life and career and a valuable blues history resource in general by virtue of its limning of many of the Wolf's fellow bluesmen--Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and others. Down-home, gritty, and comprehensive

I Am The Blues: The Willie Dixon Story
Don Snowden
Da Capo Press

These are just a few of Willie Dixon's contributions to blues, R&B, and rock'n'roll—songs performed by artists as varied as the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, ZZ Top, the Doors, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Megadeth, Eric Clapton, Let Zepplin, Tesla, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jeff Healey.I Am the Blues captures Willie Dixon's inimitable voice and character as he tells his life story: the segregation of Visksburg Mississippi, where Dixon grew up; the prison farm from which he escaped and then hoboed his way north as a teenager; his equal-rights-based draft refusal in 1942; his work—as songwriter bassist, producer, and arranger—with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry which shaped the definitive Chicago blues sound of Chess Records; and his legal battles to recapture the rights to his historic catalog of songs.

The Devil's Music: A History Of The Blues
Giles Oakley
Da Capo Press

The Devil's Music is one of the only books to trace the rise and development of the blues both in relation to other forms of black music and in the context of American social history as experienced by African Americans. From its roots in the turn-of-the-century honky-tonks of New Orleans and the barrelhouses and plantations of the Mississippi Delta to modern legends such as John Lee Hooker and B. B. King, the blues comes alive here through accounts by the blues musicians themselves and those who knew them. Throughout this wide-ranging and fascinating book, BBC-TV producer Giles Oakley describes the texture of the life that made the blues possible, and the changing attitudes towards the music. The Devil's Music is a wholehearted and loving examination of one of America's most powerful traditions.

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