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bioniclib's review against another edition
4.0
This books traces the history of the blues from it's roots. It comes from African Tribal songs, field holler on the plantations, prison songs, and gospel music among many other influences. The Blues is a lifestyle, the troubles unique to blacks in the south needed an outlet. Blues was one of them. There was very little they could do to get out of their troubles, but they could sing.
I love blues music but have trouble hearing some of the old stuff recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress back in the 30s (a later recording trip took place in the 60s and that was a little better), so I've turned to reading about it. If you're as passionate about the blues as I am, this is a great book. Though, beware, each chapter is written by a different person and thus not all chapters are created equal. Most of them can also get a little heavy on the name dropping, it seems that they're just listing as many bluesmen (and women) as they can to fill up a paragraph. If you don't care about the blues, then why are you even reading this review?
I love blues music but have trouble hearing some of the old stuff recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress back in the 30s (a later recording trip took place in the 60s and that was a little better), so I've turned to reading about it. If you're as passionate about the blues as I am, this is a great book. Though, beware, each chapter is written by a different person and thus not all chapters are created equal. Most of them can also get a little heavy on the name dropping, it seems that they're just listing as many bluesmen (and women) as they can to fill up a paragraph. If you don't care about the blues, then why are you even reading this review?