Chasin' That Devil's Music Searching for the Blues - Book/CD (Softcover) [Paperback]

Gayle Dean Wardlow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

ÕChasinÕ That Devil Music - Searching for the BluesÕ is the fruit of research into the birth of the blues by a blues scholar who has researched the artists on old 78 RPM records to uncover their stories along with rare interviews and songs which are on the CD included with the book.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Chasin' That Devil Music has the feel of a documentary about the making of a thrilling motion picture. The main focus is on the Delta blues singers of the early 20th century--artists such as Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Son House, and Blind Lemon Jefferson who've achieved near-mythic status in blues circles. In addition, many of the articles gathered in this splendidly illustrated volume capture the process and people involved in tracking long-lost recordings nearly as elusive as the performers who made them. Here, for example, is the story of author/blues scholar Gayle Dean Wardlow's three-year hunt for the death certificate of Robert Johnson, the celebrated Mississippi bluesman and a figure whose legend has grown greater with each year since his much-debated death in 1938. The text here is nearly as raw in spots as the music that sparked it, but, as with those sounds (which can be heard on a terrific CD sampler included with the book), enthusiasts will find Chasin' That Devil Music riveting. --Steven Stolder

Review

"A beautiful piece of research...essential reading." -- Jazzbeat, Spring 1999

"A special book. I highly recommend this work for anyone who wants to know more or better understand our music." -- Jazz Educators Journal, May 1999

"Clarifies information or solves mysteries regarding dozens of lesser-known musicians...a resonant breath of the real people whose lives came and went, leaving behind performances of beauty and power. The accompanying CD is a generous batch of rare recordings with interview excerpts interspersed." -- Tower Records' "Epulse" website, December 7, 1998

"Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Delta blues." -- Blues Revue, April 1999

"If the book alone isn't bargain enough, the accompanying CD makes a great deal...and it's a helluva show! -- Vintage Guitar Magazine, February 1999

"If your interest in blues music is limited to Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jonny Lang or even B.B. King, Chasin' That Devil Music might not hold your interest. However, if you want to know who most influenced those artists, this book is one not to miss." -- The Clarion-Ledger, December 6, 1998

"Nothing short of a milestone...a truly amazing book." -- Dirty Linen, February/March 1999

"Presents a wealth of information available nowhere else. The same can also be said of the recordings on the enclosed CD, which are taken from rare discs in the author's private collection." -- Book News, December 1998

"Wardlow amply deserves the description 'legendary blues sleuth'...the book makes a fascinating read..." -- Juke Blues

"Wardlow is a virtual Sherlock Holmes of the blues." --The Rylander

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879305525
• ISBN-13: 978-0879305529
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Piece for Blues Fans, September 20, 2002

By 

Caesar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasin' That Devil's Music Searching for the Blues - Book/CD (Softcover) (Paperback)

I agree with Lampic's review in that the author comes across as egocentric while compiling the history of the Mississippi Delta blues, offering some inappropriate and disrespectful comments while interviewing seventy-five-year-old bluesmen. Regardless, the content of this book is very important and valuable to anybody who is as passionate about the music from this era as me.

We are all familiar with Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Skip James, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, and Son House. These names give us the true definition of Mississippi Delta blues and have now obtained a well-deserved legendary status, becoming subjects of countless music compilations and biographies. But they weren't the only blues singers from the Delta. The author recognizes this and gives us strikingly vivid and detailed accounts of the lives and contributions of the lesser-known bluesmen; namely, Ishmon Bracey, King Solomon Hill, and Tommy Johnson (although Tommy Johnson has recently been a subject of intrest after the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" phenomenon). These men have long been overlooked and their music was shadowed by that of Skip James and Robert Johnson during the blues revival of the 1960s.

One particularly interesting portion in this book is the re-examination of Robert Johnson's death, which has been the subject of many-a-legend. Wardlow rehashes the search for Johnson's death certificate and offers his own ideas, based on his own research and interview sessions, about how Johnson really died.

We also learn the fates of many of the other performers, which is often heartbreaking--these men are my heroes, and it's so sad to learn that many were victims of alcoholism and extreme poverty.

The accompanying CD is an excellent item indeed. Not only do we have audios of Wardlow's interviews, but many previously unreleased (or thought to have been lost) recordings from Skip James, Tommy Johnson, King Solomon Hill, and Ishmon Bracey (among others). What's even more remarkable is that these came from Wardlow's own private collection of blues 78s--I'd love to see this guy's record library!

Wardlow also includes an extremely comprehensive discography for each bluesman, arranged by catalog number for Paramount and Yazoo. This list alone is worth the price of the book--I now have a basis for building my own collection (although I tend to stick to the cheaper and less fragile CD releases, rather than trying to track down the original 78s!)

If you look beyond the writing style and the occasional arrogance, this book is excellent for its historic information and accompanying music collection.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a flawed but worthwhile look at the makers of the blues, February 20, 1999

By 

Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chasin' That Devil's Music Searching for the Blues - Book/CD (Softcover) (Paperback)

Chasin' That Devil Music will interest hard-core devotees and scholars of rural blues, even if its narrow focus will occasionally frustrate and exasperate them. Those of us who love American roots music owe Gayle Dean Wardlow a huge debt of gratitude for the many years he has devoted to the search for the the human beings behind those scratchy, classic 1920s/1930s Mississippi blues recordings. This book puts between covers a number of articles, most of them fairly short, Wardlow has published in blues and record-collector periodicals since the 1960s. It's fat with detail and minutia of varying degrees of interest, and here and there it stops to debunk some hoary blues legend. It contains a wealth of terrific photographs, and a splendid CD accompanies it. That's the good news. The bad news is that nothing especially profound or engaging is going on here. Wardlow treats the musicians as if they existed in a vacuum except when they recorded, played, or interacted with one another. The reader longs for some effort to put these talented men (there are few women here) into a broader cultural context, or for some attempt to relate rural blues to the other varieties of rural Southern folk music, white as well as black, that helped to create and shape it. Then, again, maybe it isn't fair to criticize an author for not writing the book you wish he'd written. It can, however, be fairly charged that because of its reprint format, the book lacks structure and narrative drive. Wardlow ought to have attempted to use the articles simply as the first draft of a coherent, fully realized book. As it is, Chasin' That Devil Music is best ingested in small bites.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One amazing author/researcher, June 13, 2000

By 

Rick Kennedy (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasin' That Devil's Music Searching for the Blues - Book/CD (Softcover) (Paperback)

I praise this remarkable book as a biased reader. I've had the great pleasure over the years to discuss early blues research projects with Mr. Wardlow, a fine Southern gentleman. It is no exaggeration to say that we would know far, far less about the details surrounding the early recordings of our pioneer Delta blues musicians without his field research. He began his search in the early 1960s when many elderly blues artists, or associates and relatives, were still alive. This book details his amazing journeys into a mysterious world. He kept these details from being lost forever. As blues (like jazz) becomes part of our academia, Mr. Wardlow's work will become more recognized. This book isn't a rehash/compilation of previously published material. Wardlow is a research hound like no other. Read this book and then take it with you down Highway 61 through the Delta. You will be overwhelmed.