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Legends of the Blues

Computers are not the only thing I am interested in. Not by a long shot. I have so many interests and hobbies that I haven’t yet mentioned on this blog. One of my interests is music. Some of you know I am a musician. I play bass in a local band. I have played guitar for more than 20 years. I love music. One style of music that has been a strong influence is the blues. Not only modern stuff like post-British-Invasion bands, but the old stuff, too. I also enjoy comics and manga and I’ve reviewed several titles that combine these with educational topics.

Legends of the Blues is filled with 100 one page biographies of blues musicians. The artists in the book were chosen by the author, William Stout, because he both loves their music and because he thought it would be fun to draw a picture of each of them. And draw he does! Stout calls on the style of R. Crumb as he creates beautiful portraits of each artist. Part of the process of selecting artists was that Stout had seen an older book by Abrams titled R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jass & Country. Stout tried not to repeat any of the artists from Crumb’s book, but in the end there were a couple he loved too much to leave out of his own book.

So, to the point. Who is in here? There are tons of big names you should recognize like Bessie Smith, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Blind Willie Johnson. There are also some less-well-known artists who music really deserves to be better known, people like Cow Cow Davenport and Big Joe Williams.

Each biography in the book lists the artist’s main instruments, when and where they were born and died, and some recommended tracks along with a one page synopsis of their place in the history of the blues. Each one is interesting and worth reading. Then, on the facing page, you have a beautiful portrait of the artist being discussed. Very cool.

That would be enough for me to give this book a recommendation.

There is a bonus that I did not expect and appreciate greatly. Accompanying the book is a CD of 14 songs chosen by William Stout. The CD is titled “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” and is an eclectic mix of traditional blues from both the juke joint and the Gospel sides. This CD includes several songs I have not heard before and did not have in my library, but which will be in regular rotation in my play lists from now on.

If you like blues, this book is worth the price of admission.

Disclosure: I was given my copy of this book by the publisher as a review copy. See also: Are All Book Reviews Positive?