Customer Reviews

MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide (Musichound Essential Album Guides)

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The Music Hound series is written with a breezier style than that of the AMG (All Music Guides) and some people may find that appealing. I picked this book up at a half price bookstore and feel I got a good deal. If I had paid full price I would not be very happy.

The entries in the book are short on information and long on impressions. There are an idiosyncratic bunch of people included in Music Hound's definition of blues - Gilliam Welch and many of the alt.country performers are strange fits in a blues book. I can understand wanting to expand the label, but the descriptions of these performers do not make solid arguments why they should be considered "blues". Because of this coverage of the fringe element, some of the mainstream performers seem to receive less attention. Would be like a rock book spending an immense amount of time on rockabilly legends and giving the Beatles a two-page entry.

However, I am enchanted by music reference books and find the Music Hound no exception. But do not use this as your first and/or only guide, use it to supplement AMG or the Colin Larkin/Virgin entry on the blues. Even the RollingStone's blues book is a better single source.