Rollin' and Tumblin' : The Postwar Blues Guitarists

Rating:
Summary: To Understand The Blues, You Need To Know The Bluesmen
Review: Blues music is a highly-codified deep poetry designed to be sung in front of both blacks and whites but only truly understood by blacks. Ask about Sonny Boy's "Fattenin' Frogs For Snakes" and Southern whites will start talking about frogs and snakes; blacks recognize that this is about working and not getting paid or buying a dress for a woman who goes off with another man. This book is one of a few blues books that lets the blues poets tell their story, much of which is between he lines of their stories and their songs. Read it closely and you will begin to understand what it was to be a black in the Mississippi Delta or Chicago in the 1930s through the 1960s. Then you will find parallels with today's world that will change you forever. Jas Obrecht's book has the wisdom to allow the interviewees the dignity to speak in their own words and dialect with minimal editing. This is a major book on life ... and the blues.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing but the blues
Review: 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!