The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings [Paperback]

Tony Russell (Author), Chris Smith (Author), Neil Slaven (Contributor), Ricky Russell (Contributor), Joe Faulkner (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

A one-of-a-kind new guide to recorded blues

This informative, insightful, and easy-to-use A-Z guide surveys the recorded work of more than a thousand blues artists. From towering figures of the past like Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, and Robert Johnson to stars of the modern era such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, this valuable resource provides crisp, expert, and witty reviews of almost six thousand recordings and is required reading for blues aficionados as well as anyone just starting a collection.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tony Russell is a music historian who has written on country music, blues, jazz, and other forms of popular music in a wide variety of publications. He has researched, written, and presented many musical programs for BBC Radio and has acted as consultant on numerous radio and television documentaries.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 1008 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140513841
• ISBN-13: 978-0140513844
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,008,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST OF ALL BLUES GUIDES-IGNORE THE PREVIOUS IGNORANCE, August 24, 2007

By 

paul vernon "an old Sailor" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings (Paperback)

I've seriously had enough of American ignorance and outright resentment about the contents of this, the best of all guides to blues recordings. One chap points out that the authors complain that Lurrie Bell's output is poor, but his best work was simply not made until after the book was written. You didn't realize that? Another complains that the book is "snobbish", a very shakey value judgment indeed, which tells me way more about him than the authors; yet another tells us that the authors don't like anything they review; apart from being arrrant nonsense, it simply isnt true. Not everything recorded in the name of Blues is great. Clearly, the reviewer skimmed the book while multi tasking, or his ignorance would not be quite so flamboyantly displayed. Some Blues records are well below par. That's the POINT of a critical review. A third tells us that North Americans will need an arcane dictionary to comprehend what is being said. Whatever happened to education? That's YOUR responsibily, not the authors. I feel now, as I always have done, that this book represents the best critical review you can invest in. It is well informed, trustworthy, honest and backed by over 40 years of experience by people who know what they are doing and saying. I've been listening since 1963 myself, so I too know what I'm talking about

And, to answer the chap who asked "what do these British chaps know about the Blues anyway", I am, first and formost astonished by his ignorance. The UK has produced the bulk of the best blues writing, all the serious discographical reference works, a slew of important and vaulueable reissues, first on vynil, as early as 1951, then on CD; ever heard of Ace or Document records? Since 1951 when Big Bill toured Europe for the first time, blues performers, most especially in the 1960's, received warm welcomes in the UK and continental Europe, were treated as human beings during the segregationst period, paid well and given the chance to record for Europan companies AND get royalties. It isnt stretching the truth to say that without European interest the blues would probably have died sometime in the 1960's. And bear this in mind too; much of what passes for Blues in the US these days is essentially bar-band boogie by people who came to it via rock and never got much further. The Blues is now global. The Brits and the Euros gave it support when the Americans, with a few heroic exceptions like Chris Strachwitz, Pete Welding and Bob Koester, were busy ignoring their own history. Deal with it; oh, and for those of you who want to start shouting about the right of foreigners to interfere with US matters, let me tell you that, while British originally, I've been an American citizen now for 14 years, served my country overseas and lost an eye in the process. So deal with that too.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes a very tough read, July 14, 2007

By 

zphage - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings (Paperback)

The British version of this is a beautiful huge oversized book, US version is a standard fat trade paperback.

The tone is dry, almost academic, and maybe a little British humor. The listings and research are very good. They cover rural and electric blues, pre war and post war BUT, they don't like most of what they review. Some of the writing is so unclear and dense, it comes across as Alan Greenspan writing/speaking about economics. If you want to know what artist to check out and if a CD/album is good don't come here.

This book is not a good first choice, but a great second choice for serious blues fans looking for some challenging reading. This book will supplement the much more reader friendly ALLMUSIC GUIDE TO THE BLUES very nicely.

13 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive but Biased, November 26, 2006

By 

Curtiss Clarke (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings (Paperback)

This book provides extensive reviews of many Blues recordings on compact disc, both currently available and deleted. The authors have cut a wide swath through the history of blues from day one, up to and including artists who are performing today.

The reviews themselves however, are highly subjective in nature and in some cases, may deter readers unnecessarily from purchasing a selected title for the simple reason that the reviewer didn't like it.

At other times, the metaphors used to "slot" a particular artist miss the mark entirely. The following clunker from a review of Rosco Gordon's material ... " but in the main R&B's answer to Thelonious Monk " ... only serves to reinforce this point. Purchasers of this text book need to be warned that they will require a large English dictionary on hand when going through it due to the number of words no longer in circulation in day-to-day North American English.

Blues completists will want (or already have) Godrich, Dixon, and Rye "Blues and Gospel Records 1890 - 1943" and Leadbitter, Slaven, Fancourt, Pelletier "Blues Records 1943 - 1970". Readers less obsessed with collecting will likely fare better by searching out the "All Music Guide to Blues - 3rd Ed." (Miller Freeman Books) and the "All Music Guide to Jazz - 4th Ed." (Miller Freeman) where the reviews tend to be more evenly paced.