Written by Dave Harris, who is a career musician (mostly
busking), sometime writer for Westcoast Blues
Revue/Real Blues magazines and author of the
definitive book on one man bands – Head, Hands &
Feet.
February 3, 2015
Blues Books - A Short Primer and
Remembrance
I was a fan of blues music for quite awhile before I actually got any
blues books. My first, as best as I recall, was a gift from my sister, Carol, a paperback copy of Peter
Guralnick’s Feel Like Goin’ Home. I thoroughly enjoyed it, a well written interesting read about blues and
early rock and roll greats including Muddy, Wolf, Jerry Lee, Charlie Rich and earlier artists like Skip
James and Johnny Shines. With overviews of blues, Sun Records and Chess Records it was a good
starting place for a young person delving into the subject. It whet my appetite and I’ve bought nearly
every book on blues I could find since then. Here are a few of the more important ones.
My next blues book was The Country Blues by Sam Charters. Although some have put this book down
(especially early on) for being too much interested in city artists such as Leroy Carr and Lonnie Johnson,
for me it was a really beneficial book, opening my listening to many new artists (especially Carr and
Johnson). Released in 1959, it was an important early effort on the subject, covering the genre quite
thoroughly. An LP of the same name was compiled for Folkways’ RBF imprint. It was so thoroughly
despised by some blues purists that another label, OJL (Origin Jazz Library), released a counter album,
Really! The Country Blues. To be honest, both are excellent albums but then I like city blues. It was a sign
of the times. New white blues scholars/enthusiasts were delving into rural blues (and hillbilly) music and
they felt that artists like Bukka White, Skip James, Henry Thomas and so on were far more authentic than
urban stars like Carr. Time has somewhat proven out that same idea in a way. Carr has yet to have a
major essay about him, to my knowledge, let alone a book. Lonnie Johnson is finally getting some long
overdue recognition with two books about him in the last five years (Way Down That Lonesome Road by
Mark Miller – deals with Lonnie’s last period living in Toronto and The Original Guitar Hero... by Dean
Alger).
Another important early blues book for me was Blues Who’s Who by Sheldon Harris. This large
encyclopedia was a Godsend for me, turning me on to many superb artists and their stories. Each artist
has their dates, relatives, major songs, influences for and by, often a good black and white photo and
most of their key performances and biography. It has some flaws but is generally very good and, I should
note, includes white artists, something most such books were not doing until later. British scholar Paul
Oliver has to be one of the most important writers on blues. I found The Story of the Blues early on and it
added to my knowledge of the earlier styles and artists. Oliver made a number of trips to the US to
interview and record the artists himself. Some of these interviews were also released in Conversation with
the Blues, an excellent document of many now long dead blues greats and obscurities. The book was
also accompanied by an LP, both quite hard to find in original pressings. Oliver’s work in the field can’t be
overstated, truly one of the finest writers/researchers in the field. He has written quite a number of other
books too, including Blues Off The Record, Screening The Blues and Barrelhouse Blues.
Deep Blues by Robert Palmer has to be one of the more evocative compelling books written about blues.
Palmer aims for the deep dark places in the blues, especially Delta blues. He draws good connections
from the early pioneers up to the 70s. This is an easy to read book that will not only add to your
knowledge but inspire you to find the recordings.
Full length biographies of blues artists were pretty rare until the 80s. Big Bill Broonzy wrote his
autobiography (as told to Belgian Yannick Bruynoghe) in the 50s, Big Bill Blues, but generally the blues’
actual artists were poorly served until much later.
A series of small books for Studio Vista were issued in the early 70s including bios/studies on Tommy
Johnson and Little Brother Montgomery. Later on BB King had an autobiography (with David Ritz as
ghostwriter) Blues All Around Me. The last twenty years have produced many excellent biographies on
the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Reed, Earl Hooker,
Little Walter,
Elmore James, Buddy Guy, Memphis Minnie, Josh White, Wynonie Harris and quite a few more. BB has
been the subject of quite a few books now.
Possibly the most useful books on blues as a whole are some of the various encyclopedias that are out
there. I’ll mention a few of my favourites but, to be honest, every single one has its foibles, usually to do
with omission of artists. Probably still my first pick is Blues Who’s Who, already discussed. Gerard
Herzhaft’s Encyclopedia of the Blues is a good 500 page study with entries on the important artists and
many lesser knowns with some recordings mentioned, a few photos, selected discography, interesting
appendix of Blues Standards and more. Robert Santelli’s The Big Book of Blues is similar in format with
longer entries and larger essential listening lists (at the end of each entry). The best (but still flawed) is
probably The All Music Guide to The Blues. The largest of the bunch, it has bios on the artists followed by
album reviews, making it a useful purchasing guide. Its more inclusive format means that it strays farther
from the blues than others, including many rock acts and a few jazz and country artists as well. The last
of these types of books I’ll mention is Tony Russell and Chris Smith’s Penguin Guide to Blues
Recordings, another worthwhile purchasing guide, with many reviews of CDs. The bios are short in this
one but much can be gleaned from the well written and researched reviews.
A couple of large deluxe coffee table type books are worthy of mention. Lawrence Cohn’s superb Nothing
But The Blues is most worthy of anyone with some interest in the subject. Sumptuously produced with
high quality photos, record labels, ephemera lining every page, it takes us through blues history via
essays in chapter form covering the earliest days, the pre-war, post-war, revival, various regions, all done
to the highest standard. The other such book is Bill Wyman’s Blues Odyssey, a similar type book, deluxe,
lots of photos, similar chapter layout with a more British slant as one might expect from the former Rolling
Stone’s bass player.
There are lots of regional studies too. Some of the more notable are Chasing That Devil’s Music by Gayle
Dean Wardlow and Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald. Both deal with Delta blues mostly. Mike Rowe’s
excellent little book (from the 70s), Chicago Blues, is a worthy survey of the classic Chicago blues.
Piedmont blues is well covered in Bruce Bastin’s Red River Blues. Texas blues is well covered in Alan
Govenar’s Texas Blues – The Rise of a Contemporary Sound, another sumptuous coffee table type
book.
Lately, more country blues and obscure artists have even been the subjects of biographies, including Skip
James, Big Bill, Son House, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell, Honey Boy Edwards, Henry
Townsend, Mississippi John Hurt and more. Lots of worthy artists have yet to be covered though, notably
Carr, Tampa Red, Sonny Boy I or II, Otis Rush, Albert King, Albert Collins, Blind Lemon Jefferson,
Freddie King, Slim Harpo and more.
I’ve neglected the “blues bibles”, as those of us in the know call them. These are the Record Guides,
books listing the recordings of the artists. The Pre-War is well covered in Blues & Gospel Records 18901943, the definitive book listing every 78RPM record, cylinder etc of blues related music. The Post-War
has been covered several times, originally by Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven in Blues Records 1943-67,
later updated to a two volume set reaching 1970, adding Leslie Fancourt’s name. Later it was reissued in
a single paperback large book as The Blues Discography 1943-1970, strangely no longer crediting either
original author, now credited to Fancourt and Bob McGrath. A valuable tool for the serious collector, yet I
find it odd about the credits (surely Leadbitter’s original research was used?). Now a new book collects
everything since then The Blues Discography (the later years) 1971-2000 by Robert Ford and McGrath (I
believe McGrath is the layout man).
Obviously there was money to be made in the blues book field as there are travel guides based on blues
sites/tours, many books on “how to play”, a number of lyric books, pretty much any subject relating to the
genre. There are now quite a number of photo studies too, such as Raeburn Flerlage’s Chicago Blues
and Dick Waterman’s Between Midnight & Day. I doubt that this trend (lots of books released) will
continue though as the world becomes more internet savvy and less book oriented.
I’ve skipped lots of great books here. I now have well over 250 blues books, a full overstuffed shelf and
growing continually. As a fairly new author myself, I should mention my own book Head, Hands & Feet –
A Book of One Man Bands, which contains much blues including large entries on Jesse Fuller, Joe Hill
Louis, Dr Ross, Satan and Adam, Duster Bennett and many more. One last book I should mention is 100
Books Every Blues Fan Should Own by Edward Komara & Greg Johnson, a fairly exhaustive look at the
best blues books (and many mentioned beyond the 100). This is a good place to find out what one is
missing (I was shocked to only have around two thirds of these).
I hope this little piece will inspire some discussion and/or get someone to go out and check some books
out! Happy reading!