Customer Reviews

Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Blues Guitar Solos, Vol. 1

5 star:		(1)
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Frankly, the title is quite misleading, approaching false advertising. These are for the most part, not "blues" at all, but fingerstyle guitar pieces, mostly in the Nashville/Chet Atkins style. All of them owe some compositional debt to traditional blues, but the influence is sometimes very, very faint.

Now there are some very nice pieces in here: I'm particularly fond of Tim Sparks' "Blues on Bartok Street". But as good as that tune is, it has as much in common with what anyone thinks of as blues as any of Bartok's own compositions, which is to say nothing at all.

In short: blues this ain't. If you're hoping for an anthology of basic country/Piedmont/Chicago standards (or even styles), look elsewhere. Stefan Grossman's books are a good start.

A little over my head for someone just starting out. Saving it for when I get good enough to understand it.

If you want to learn some new music, you can't do any better than this. There are close to 50 tunes, all covered on 2 CDs that come with it. Though a few, as noted in an earlier review, are a reach, there are plenty to choose from. My guess is that most or all have appeared in other Mel Bay publications, including some which are out of print, for example 'Clear Spring Blues' by Paul Yandell. Some are jazz renditions, a few are electric, many are original, all are blues. I'm an acoustic man and am always on the hunt for new and melodic music. I originally passed this over because it had gotten a bad rap, but that I've now listened to most of what's included, I am really pleased and expect to take a good long ride with what's inside.