A Blues Music Reading list

 

BLUES READING LIST

 

Albertson, C. (1972) Bessie. New York: Stein & Day.

 

All Music Guide to the Blues (1999) Miller Freeman Books. (Online version: www.allmusic.com)

 

Ball, T. (n.d.) Sourcebook of Sonny Terry Licks (Book and CD)

($19.95; 48 Pages)

Besides 70 famous licks from Sonny, this pack gives you some quick harmonica lessons, information on Sonny's style, a discography with key chart, and a bibliography for future research. The CD includes each lick played out by the author.

 

Barlow, W. (1989) Looking up at down: the emergence of blues culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

 

Bastin, B. (1971) Crying for the Carolines. London: Studio Vista Blues paperbacks.

 

Bastin, B. (1995) Red River Blues: the blues tradition in the southeast. Urbana: Illini Books edn.

 

Brooks, T. (2004) Lost Sounds: blacks and the birth of the recording industry, 1890 - 1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

 

Broonzy, B. (1955) Big Bill Blues. (As told to Yannick Bruynoghe.) London: Cassell.

 

Calt, S. (1988) King of the Delta Blues: the life and music of Charlie Patton. Rock Chapel Press. (Some citations give the authors as Calt, S. & Wardlow, G.)

This book is based on the comprehensive research on the subject by Gayle Dean Wardlow, research which is largely unavailable elsewhere. Unfortunately, Calt's presentation of this information is poor at King best, and downright malicious at times. His writing is typically peppered with ad homien attacks at his subjects, and this book is no exception. The book is also in desperate need of thorough editing ... one sometimes wonders how it got published at all.

 

Calt, S. (1994) I’d rather be the devil: Skip James and the blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (P/b 2008)

 

Charters, S. (1997) The Legacy of the Blues: the art and lives of twelve great bluesmen. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. [Australia] (Original 1975)

 

Charters, S. (1991) The Blues Makers. New York: Da Capo. (Reprints The Bluesmen [1967] and Sweet as The Showers Of Rain [1977], with new additional material by the author.) I had it from the library but didn't have time to finish it.

 

Charters, S. (1977) Sweet as the Showers of Rain: the bluesmen Vol. 2. New York: Oak Publications and Penguin (USA)

 

Charters, S. (1975) The Country Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (Original 1959.)

 

Charters, S. (1967) The Bluesmen. New York: Music Sales Corp.

 

Charters, S. (1963) The Poetry Of The Blues. New York: Oak Publications.

 

Charters, S. (2004) Walking A Blues Road; a selection of blues writing 1956 - 2004. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd.

 

Cohn, L. (ed.) (1993) Nothing But The Blues: the music and the musicians. New York: Abbeville Publishing Group (aka Abberville Press).

 

Cowley, J. (?) 'Son House: an historical appreciation.' Blues and Rhythm. 41. 8 - 10. (Another article about Son House is in edition 207.)

 

Danchin, S. (1998) Blues Boy: the life and music of B. B. King. University Press of Missisippi.

This book explores all aspects of King's life and career, providing an objective description of the man and his music. A revision of the edition published in France in 1993 by `editions du Limon, it supplements B. B. King's moving autobiography Blues All Around Me. Whereas King's is a book of memories, this is an objective story with careful historical perspective and observations from key witnesses. It draws on many printed sources, from King's published interviews, and from the author's recurring encounters with King and his manager since 1977. It shows how in some ways B. B. King's life has conformed to the commonly adopted image of the blues singer's early years of poverty and hardship in the American South, a backdrop of cotton fields and muddy waters of the Mississippi River, a musical apprenticeship in the big city (Memphis), and a career that reaches its peak under the spotlights of Las Vegas.

 

Davis, F. (1995) The history of the blues. London: Secker & Walberg.

 

Anthony DeCurtis, A. (n.d.) Blues & Chaos: The Robert Palmer Anthology (tentative title)

 

Dicaire, D. (2002) More Blues Singers: biographies of 50 legendary artists from the later 20^th century. McFarland.

 

 

Dicaire, D. (1999) Blues Singers: biographies of 50 legendary artists of the early 20^th century. McFarland.

This reference volume is intended for both the casual and the most avid blues fan. It is divided into five separately introduced sections. Beginning with the pioneering Mississippi Delta bluesmen, the book then follows the spread of the genre to the city, in the section on the Chicago Blues School. The third segment covers the Texas blues tradition; the fourth, the great blueswomen; and the fifth, the genre’s development outside its main schools. The styles covered range from Virginia-Piedmont to Bentonia and from barrelhouse to boogie-woogie. The main text is augmented by substantial discographies and a lengthy bibliography.

 

Evans, D. (1982) Big Road Blues: tradition and creativity in the Folk Blues. Berkeley: University of California Press; New York: Da Capo Press.

 

Ferris, W. (1988) Blues from the Delta. Da Capo Press.

 

Ford, R. (1999) A Blues Bibliography: the international literature of an Afro-American music genre. Bromley: Paul Pelletier.

 

Garon, P. & Garon, B. (1992) Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's blues. New York: Da Capo Press.

 

Goldsmith, P. (1998, 2000) Making people’s music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

 

Groom, B. (1971) The Blues Revival. Studio Vista.

 

Handy, W. C. (1991) Father Of The Blues. New York: Da Capo Press. (Originally published 1941)

 

Harris, S. (1991) Blues Who's Who: a biographical dictionary of blues singers. (revised edn.) New York: Da Capo. (Original: 1989, New York: Arlington House.)

 

Harrison, D. D. (1990) Black Pearls: blues queens of the 1920s: black pearls. New Brunswick & London: Rutgers University Press. (Original 1989?)

 

Haymes, M. (2006) Railroadin' Some: railroads in the early blues. York: Music Mentor Books.

 

Hitchcock, E. W. & Sadie, S. (eds.) (1986) The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Macmillan.

 

Keil, C. (1966) Urban Blues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

 

Komara, E. (ed.) (2005) Encyclopedia Of The Blues. (2 vols.) New York: Routledge.

 

Lomax, A. (1993) The Land Where The Blues Began. New York: Pantheon. New edition by New Press, 2002.

 

Notable black American women (Book 1). Gale Research, 1992.

 

Oakley, G. (1976) The Devil's Music: a history of the blues. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

 

Oliver, P. (1984) Songsters And Saints: vocal traditions on race records. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Oliver, P. (1965) Conversation With The Blues. London: Cassell.

 

Oliver, P. (1963) The Meaning Of The Blues. New York: Collier Books.

 

Oliver, P. (1960) Blues Fell This Morning. London: Cassell.

 

Oliver, P. (ed.) (1989) The Blackwell Guide To Blues Records. Oxford: Basil Blackwood (Blackwell??)

 

Oliver, P. et al (1987) The New Grove gospel, blues and jazz. New York: Grove Publications. (Published originally in 1986 by Norton?)

 

Palmer, R. (1981) Deep blues: a musical and cultural history of the Mississippi Delta. New York: Penguin.

 

Placksin, S. (1982) American women in jazz: 1900 to the present. Seaview Books.

 

Porterfield, N. (1996) Last Cavalier: the life and times of John A. Lomax. Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

 

Price, C. G. (2002) '"Got my own world to look through": Jimi Hendrix and the blues aesthetic.' Journal of American Culture. 25. (3 - 4) 442 - 446.

 

Rothenbuhler, E. W. (2007) 'For-the-record aesthetics and Robert Johnson's blues style as a product of recorded culture.' Popular Music. 26. 65-81.

Robert Johnson (1911–1938) learned his craft from records and radio and polished his songs to be recorded. As he did so, he effectively developed a ‘for-the-record’ aesthetic that made his music sound different to that of many others - including his Delta contemporaries - who used musical techniques honed in performance for an audience. Decades later, when a ‘for-the-record’ aesthetic was the taken-for-granted standard in popular musical culture, Robert Johnson's records sounded better than those of his contemporaries, and the audience from the 1960s to today has had a reason to think that he and his music were special.

 

Russel, T. (1970) Blacks, Whites and Blues. London: Studio Vista.

 

Russel, T. (1997) The Blues From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. London: Aurum Press.

 

Russel, T. & Smith, C. (2006) The Penguin Guide To Blues Recordings. London: Penguin.

 

Sacre, R. (1987) The Voice of the Delta: Charley Patton and the Mississippi Blues. Traditions, influences and comparisons. Liége, Belgium: Presses Universitaires de Liége.

 

Santelli, R. (1994) The Big Book Of Blues: a biographical encyclopedia. London: Pavilion Books.

 

Southern, E. (1982) Biographical Dictionary Of Afro-American and African Musicians. Greenwood Press.

 

Southern, E. (1983) The Music Of Black Americans: a history. Norton.

 

Stewart-Baxter, D. (1976) Ma Rainey And The Classical Blues Singers. New York: Stein and Day.

 

Terry, S. and Kent Cooper, K. (1975) Sonny Terry’s Country Blues Harmonica.

(His harmonica techniques are detailed in a crude tablature system.)

 

Tilling, R. (1992) Oh! What A Beautiful City: a tribute to Rev. Gary davis 1896 - 1972. Jersey: Paul Mill Press.

 

Titon, J. T. (1993) ‘Reconstructing the blues: reflections on the 1960s blues revival.’ in N. V. Rosenberg (ed.) Transforming Tradition: folk music revivals examined. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

 

Wald, E. (2004) Ecaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the invention of the Delta Blues. New York: Amistad.

'There has probably been more romantic foolishness written about blues in general, and Robert Johnson in particular, than about any other genre or performer of the twentieth century. As white urbanites discovered the 'Race records' of the 1920s and 1930s, they reshapred the music to fit their own tastes and desires, creating a rich mythology that often bears little resemblance to the reality of the music they admired. Popular entertainers were reborn as primitive voices from the dark and demonic Delta, and a music notable for its professionalism and humour was recast as the heart-cry of a suffering people. The poverty and oppression of the world that created blues is undeniable, but it was the music's up-to-date power and promise, not its folkloric melancholy, that attracted black record buyers.' (p. 1)

 

Wardlow, G. D. (1998) Chasin' That Devil Music: searching for the blues. San Francisco: Backbeat Books.

 

 

 

SEE ALSO

Brady, E. (1999) A spiral way; how the phonograph hanged ethnography. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.

 

Brooks, T. et al (2004) Lost sounds: blacks and the birth of the recording industry 1890 – 1919. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

 

Chanan, M. (1995) Repeated takes: a short history of recording and its effects on music. London: Verso.

 

Hobsbawm, E. (1998) Uncommon people: resistance, rebellion and jazz. New York: The New Press.

 

Kenney, W. H. (1999) Recorded music in American life: the phonograph and popular memory, 1890 – 1945. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Read, O. & Welch, W. L. (1976) From tin foil to stereo: evolution of the phonograph. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.