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BooksThe Rough Guide to The Blues
Nigel Williamson has transported these angel wraiths into the 21st century - breathing new life into a glorious kaleidoscope of Afro-American music." The Rough Guide to The Blues is the essential blues companion, telling the genre's fascinating story and giving the lowdown on all the grittiest singers, bottleneck guitarists, belt-it-out divas and wailing harmonica players. It covers the whole journey from its roots in Africa, to how the blues crawled from the Mississippi Delta, went electric in the cities, and spread across the world. Detailing hundreds of artists from folk heroes like Son House, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson, through the legends of B.B. King, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, to the great blues rockers of the 60's and 70's, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Cream, The Rough Guide to The Blues offers the most thorough and meticulous consolidation of blues biography yet assembled. Accepting the blues as a broad church, author Nigel Williamson profiles artists and bands that have played their own significant role in blues history. Those new to the blues, or fans in a particular frame of mind, will appreciate the inclusion of Playlists to download to your iPod or MP3. Choose between individual artists, 'best ofs' or check out the ten greatest slide guitar tracks or harmonica solos. And for those in the mood for sex, drugs and booze - the blues, and the playlists, we've got that covered, too. For review copies, excerpts and author interviews, Rough Guides • 345 Hudson St., fl. 4 • NYC • 10014 Nigel Williamson grew up a long way from the Mississippi Delta in the leafy environs of Kent, in the UK. He discovered the blues as a teenager in the 1960s via the records of John Mayall, Cream, The Doors and others and swiftly realized that he preferred the originals to the imitators. His natural inclination to support the underdog not only gave him a natural affinity with the music but led him into the world of radical left-wing politics. He worked for the British politicians Tony Benn and Neil Kinnock and went on to edit a number of left-wing political publications before becoming a senior executive on The Times. Tiring of the office routine he recklessly gave up the security of a regular paycheck for the precarious existence of a freelance music critic in the mid-1990s. He is also the author of The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan. Notes to Editors Also Available on CD: 'The Rough Guide to the Blues' Contact: Mark Gorney mark@worldisc.net |
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"At the age of fifteen, I first experienced the late curtain calls of the last messengers of the seminal Delta music and its contemporary cousin, reaching out from south side Chicago and Detroit. Son House, Bukka White, John Estes, Skip James, and the Howlin' Wolf appeared before me... the sight and sounds of these men has left a shudder of unknowing and mystery with me that still thrills and inspires today.|
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