Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A rich and deep portrait of the state of blues today. Highly recommended and the accompanying CD alone is worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: this book describes blues in the making
Review: Real traditional blues (as opposed to guitar frenzied blues-rock) is very much alive and kicking, and that is the message of this book. Tim Duffy, co-founder of the non-profit "musicmaker foundation", describes the journeymen blues artists that his organisation helps to support, promote, record and arrange live dates for. These artists are a talented bunch who have invariably led the hard lives so often described by blues lyrics. Few of these people have managed to live the life of a professional musician, rather music for them has enabled them to supplement low incomes.

Short sections of text are richly illustrated with photographs shot mostly by the editor himself, and describe with great passion the often rich and eventful lives of these struggling musicians. As a bonus, a number of the artists can be heard on the enclosed CD compilation. Although BB King provides the introduction, this book is never about the well known blues icons such as BB, but celebrates the unsung heroes who are still out there keeping the blues alive in communities all over america.

This is a contemporary book of the blues like no other and is worth every penny. Regard this book as a doorway to the "musicmaker" experience, because musicmker shows are regularly organised up and down the country, as described on their website ...