Customer Reviews

Been Here and Gone: A Memoir of the Blues

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a nice read for someone who is not too familiar with blues history. Dalton really took his time with real names and places which almost makes you think this story is true. You can tell he knows a great deal about the south and it's music. But if you want a truely great "memoir of the blues" just pick up "The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: The Life And Times Of Delta Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards" or "A Blues Life", the Henry Townsend Autobiography.

I've just got to disagree with Malak here. Lighten up, guy; this is a fictional memoir, not a novel. And, it reads just like a memoir of someone who spent a lifetime at the edges of the blues. Met many of the greats, got to know a handful of them well, crossed paths with many others.

It's a fun, historically accurate, and eminently readable history of the blues. A great introduction to the likes of Tommy Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Charie Patton et al. from the Delta, on to Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf in Chicago. Forays into each of the major cities in Blues history: The Delta, Memphis, St. Louis, Los Angeles during WWII, Chicago after the war, even on to England for a brief visit with the white kids who revered these blues heros.

It's a piece of work and a fun read. Sure, if you know a lot about it, or if you've read a good share of what's in the references, it is going to seem shallow. And sometimes it gets a bit silly. But if you only know a bit about blues history and want to know more, this is a readable and fun trek from the delta through Jimi Hendrix. It's a gem.

--olive 6 March 2001

If you know very little about the history of the blues, here is a painless way to get started. This was a good fictional story by the world's "oldest bluesman". Some names and facts about actual blues figures are included. BUT as another reviewer put it "Remember,it's fiction". I do not present myself as an expert on the blues,but have been a fan ,a student,and have known a few great bluesmakers.There were times when reading this book,when I would STOP , and think, well that's not the way it was,and then remember that this book IS fiction. I hope that reading this book will inspire people to read some factual auto/biographies,and to listen to some good blues music.

A must read book. Coley Williams is a quintessential bluesman. He takes you on an entertaining trip thorough the history of the blues bringing to life many of its great musicians. He feels so real, you want to go out and buy his CD. I only hope we hear more from him in the future. It would make a terrific audio book - maybe read by Morgan Freeman.

I'm not quite halfway through the book yet, but I'm transported to the dry delta land of the mid-twenties listening to music from the soul. I think this book does a good job easily moving from the stories of Robert Johnson to Charlie Patton to Huddie Ledbetter to Blind Lemon Jefferson while painting a likely fictional tale built on what we do know of these men. It's full of believable dialogue and realistic dialect. Poor, talented, proud, superstitious, curious, wandering souls of gold.

I've been a long-time fan of blues music but I never really knew all that much about the history or people behind it-until I went on Dalton's fantastic journey. Coley Williams is one of the most vivid characters I've come across in years; his voice is so authentic and his stories of life on the road, crossing paths with the great lights of the blues, are a feat of interpretive imagination. I've seen pictures of Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon and Bessie Smith, but now I feel like I know what it would have been like to hear them talk, watch them sing, knock back a couple of whiskeys, get in a fight, etc. By the end of the book, I felt like I'd lived the blues!

I've been a long-time fan of blues music but I never really knew all that much about the history or people behind it-until I went on Dalton's fantastic journey. Coley Williams is one of the most vivid characters I've come across in years; his voice is so authentic and his stories of life on the road, crossing paths with the great lights of the blues, are a feat of interpretive imagination. I've seen pictures of Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon and Bessie Smith, but now I feel like I know what it would have been like to hear them talk, watch them sing, knock back a couple of whiskeys, get in a fight, etc. By the end of the book, I felt like I'd lived the blues!

I enjoy playing the blues, but before reading this book I knew very little about the history of blues music and its early performers. While the premise is a little corny (think Forest Gump the movie)this book has a number of very interesting profiles of the personalities behind blues music, their times, and influences on popular culture. If nothing else, it has encouraged me to expand my CD collection to include the likes of Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Sam Hopkins!

What a disappointment this was - does cobbling together bits and pieces of incidents from many well known blues works into a patchwork held together by the thinnest of narrative and barely developed characters qualify as writing a novel? At the back the author lists many of the works from which he lifted the incidents for this "novel". My advice is to go read them and forget this mishmash.