Additional reviews (to be added to reviews already listed)
"160 pages of breathtaking photography." -Lakeland Newspapers
"Long-awaited masterpiece by one of the top-ranking blues photographers in the world." -John Brisbin, writer, Living Blues Magazine
"A visual jam session." -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"These pictures and quotes let it be known, the blues really is a feeling." -Borders Books and Music
"Beautifully designed, well printed . . . It's already a classic." -Raeburn Flerlage, Blues photographer
"The introductory essay by William H. Wiggins, aptly defines Fraher's stunning portraits." -Roger Wood, writer, Living Blues Magazine
"This book inspires you." -Willie Kent, Blues musician
"It is magnificent. The photos capture a lot of personality and sparkle. The studio shots project a profound sense of dignity and assurance from their subjects." -Niles Frantz, WBEZ Radio, Chicago
"A labor of love done very well." -Judy Peiser, Center for Southern Folklore
"When my grandchildren read this book, that's history to them." -"Texas" Johnny Brown, Blues musician
The Blues is a Feeling is an intimate glimpse into the eyes and the soul of the Blues, presenting a hundred riveting black and white and duotone portraits of black American blues artists, and about as many excerpts of interviews with the subjects. The book portrays Blues musicians, exclusively African-American men and women, of all ages and levels of popular success, from relatively obscure artists like the Cincinnati area's pianist, H-Bomb Ferguson in a straight, beaded, white wig with , to stars like Buddy Guy, kicked back on his sofa, playing a guitar. The photos are mostly formal portraits, posed in studio-like settings, but include some beautiful candids, like a profile shot of Jack Owens at the wheel of his pickup truck. In a whimsical moment, Big Jack Johnson pretends to play a tiny toy guitar, presumably on someone's front porch, his eyes closed, with a tight lipped smile, and the viewer can almost hear him bending a tiny note.
This collection is remarkable, not only for the generous number and high quality of rare photos of lesser known artists and legends, on a "stage" where everyone is given equal billing, but also for its sensitivity and the author's apparent true affection and respect for the subjects. These portraits are very revealing of the respective personalities, and convey a deep sense of the humanity and individuality of the men and women portrayed. If the photos were not immediately recognizable as a treasure in themselves, taking time to read and ponder the text, the reader will find still greater depth. Each photo is accompanied by a very brief, essential quote. Perhaps believing that "less is more," the author has brilliantly excerpted revelatory phrases and stories that allow the reader's imagination to fill in the details, and has sequenced the photos according to the themes of the quotes, providing an appropriate semblance of an oral history of the Blues, through the collective musings of the artists.
In a chapter titled, "My Uncle Taught Me," several guitarists mention originally learning to play home-made one-string guitars. R.L. Burnside says, "Diddley board what I used to call it. Get you a piece of wire off an old broom or something and put it upside the wall - and a couple of them snuff bottles under it - and you's gone!" George Washington, Jr. recalls, "I went to tearing up Mama's brooms and I got in trouble with it. When I went on there singing, I got that whooping. So, my daddy, he came 'round there and I was playing out there on an old cotton house. He's standing up behind me, listening to me play, but I didn't know he was behind me. And he told her, don't whoop me no more, someday he'll be a musician."
Photographer/author James Fraher has spent more than a decade collecting these photos and documenting the lives of Blues musicians, publishing his images on the covers of Living Blues Magazine and in major newspapers and music industry periodicals, earning a 1996 Blues Foundation "Keeping the Blues Alive" award in the process. Many of the images in the book were part of a touring exhibition that opened in Chicago in 1991, and which still tours as it evolves through the addition of new photos. The has been featured at such well known Blues Fests as King Biscuit and Bull Durham, as well as in galleries and museums in the U.S. and Europe.
Michael Gantt Baltimore Blues Society -- Reviews
This is one of the few photographic studies of blues musicians that focuses solely on the Africa-American heritage of the blues. It is a gem of a book. Franer's portraits and commentary are both intimate and sometimes bold. He manages to capture the uniqueness of each musician and of life onstage, and off. There is a powerful intensity in many of the photographs and a real depth of poetic insight in the comments of each individual.In his excellent and detailed introduction, William Wiggins calls the book "a rare and sensitive study." He notes that the photographer seems to focus on the hands of the musicians as a kind of overriding metaphor. The hands do tell a story of their own if you look carefully enough. This is a book for those who love the blues, for those who cherish the oral and folk culture in our country and for those who celebrate photography as an art form. Like Brian Lanker's beautiful collection of portraits of prominent black women, I Dream A World (1989), this is a book for all who rejoice in the contribution African-Americans have made and continue to make to enrich and enliven our world. -- From Independent Publisher
