Reddit mentions: The best blues music books
We found 45 Reddit comments discussing the best blues music books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 23 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
1. Miles: The Autobiography
- Melody/Lyrics/Chords
- Pages: 128
- Instrumentation: Banjo
- Instrumentation: Guitar
- Instrumentation: Melody/Lyrics/Chords
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9.25 Inches |
Length | 6.25 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | September 1990 |
Weight | 1.4991433816 Pounds |
Width | 1.25 Inches |
2. R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country
Harry N Abrams
Specs:
Height | 7.5 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | November 2006 |
Weight | 1.212542441 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
3. Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
Amistad
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | December 2004 |
Weight | 0.83996121822 Pounds |
Width | 0.92 Inches |
4. Blues People: Negro Music in White America
Specs:
Height | 8.25 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 1999 |
Weight | 0.551155655 Pounds |
Width | 0.64 Inches |
5. Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King
- It Books
Features:
Specs:
Height | 1.2 Inches |
Length | 8.9 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | March 2011 |
Weight | 1 Pounds |
Width | 5.9 Inches |
6. Blue Note: Album Cover Art
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 7.1 Inches |
Length | 7.1 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.4991433816 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
7. The Real Blues Book
- 75% cotton, 20% polyester, 5% spandex.
Features:
Specs:
Height | 11 Inches |
Length | 8.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 2.9 Pounds |
Width | 1.014 Inches |
8. B.B. King - Blues Legend: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques (Guitar Signature Licks)
Specs:
Height | 12 Inches |
Length | 9 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | February 2010 |
Weight | 0.46 Pounds |
Width | 0.157 Inches |
9. Big in China: My Unlikely Adventure Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Reinventing Myself in Beijing
10. Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis
Specs:
Height | 9.6 Inches |
Length | 6.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | March 2015 |
Weight | 1.48371102326 Pounds |
Width | 1.3 Inches |
11. Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | March 2011 |
Weight | 0.95 Pounds |
Width | 0.93 Inches |
12. Red River Blues: THE BLUES TRADITION IN THE SOUTHEAST (Music in American Life)
- WIDELY USE:With 2 packs portable automatic telescopic shrimp crab traps,it is convenient, no need to install, easy to use.
- HOW TO USE:Open the trap,then put baits into bait pouch.Just to wait the fish, shrimp, crabs and other aquatic organisms swim through the front and rear of mouths into the cage, that the prey can not come out again.
- SUPERIOR MATERIAL:Made of Double layer nylon mesh & durable steel wire support,make the crab net durable and lightweight.
- ZIP DESIGN:It is convenient to take out the prey from the zipper opening, instead of taking it out from the hole with difficulty.
- Size:Diagonal:12.6''x12.6''/32x32cm; height (stretched): 20.1''/53cm
Features:
Specs:
Height | 1.1 Inches |
Length | 9.04 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.52 Pounds |
Width | 5.87 Inches |
13. Heroes of the Blues Boxed Trading Card Set by R. Crumb
- Pedal friendly lightweight, slip-n soft knee pad
- Articulated, perforated neoprene chassis
- Abrasion resistant knee-cup area padding
- Silicone gripper inside top hems prevent slippage
- Runs small, sizing up is recommended
Features:
Specs:
Height | 1 Inches |
Length | 4.2 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Width | 3.2 Inches |
14. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Specs:
Color | Black |
Height | 7.95 Inches |
Length | 5.21 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 1999 |
Weight | 0.9375 Pounds |
Width | 0.91 Inches |
15. The Story Of The Blues
Specs:
Height | 9.02 Inches |
Length | 5.98 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.00089866948 Pounds |
Width | 0.63 Inches |
16. Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs
- All-metal design Unlocked, LTE smartphone with a powerful 2GHz Snapdragon 810 V2.1 Processor and the newest Android software, Android 6.0 marshmallow.
- A 5.7-Inch, high-resolution WQHD AMOLED display and front-facing stereo speakers to experience your photos and videos in cinematic Quality.
- The powerful 12 MP Camera was built to capture your world in true-to-life detail. Larger 1.55 µM pixels absorb more light¹ in even the dimmest conditions to make your photos Brighter.
- Quicker access and more security with a fingerprint sensor placed on the back to complement the way you naturally hold your Phone.
- Long lasting 3,450 mAh battery with quick charging USB Type-C plug. it's reversible, so there's no more guessing which way is up.
- Model Nin-A1; compatible with nano SIM Cards
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.18829159218 Pounds |
Width | 0.8 Inches |
17. Blues And Evil
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.7385485777 Pounds |
Width | 0.8 Inches |
18. B.B. King - Live At The Regal (Guitar Recorded Versions)
- Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
Features:
Specs:
Height | 12 Inches |
Length | 9 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.7 Pounds |
Width | 0.207 Inches |
19. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Color | Black |
Height | 0.89 Inches |
Length | 9.08 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.04940036712 Pounds |
Width | 6.26 Inches |
20. Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir
- Atoms For Peace (File w/ Radiohead)- Amok
Features:
Specs:
Release date | November 2009 |
🎓 Reddit experts on blues music books
The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where blues music books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
I do, fine sir. There is a CD/book from Robert Crumb entitled Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country. Fascinating original recordings from the 1920's onwards. The jazz songs are old yet you can't find more authentic and swampy, to my opinion.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0810930862/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1319037085&sr=8-1
I might add, Allen Toussaint's the Bright Mississippi. A masterpiece of the New Orleans jazz music.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001PSQGQI/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1319037496&sr=8-1
It is the best I can do. Hope you enjoy it!
Yes, you can play the BB box in any key.
The best thing you can do to learn to play like those players is to learn to play their songs! (Obviously)
That may be a tall order for you right now, and that material may be beyond your current skill level. That's okay. If you find their songs too tough, just set the tune aside and come back to it later. BB and Buddy are hugely popular players and you should have no trouble finding tutorials and analyses for their songs, or just general instructional material focusing on those players.
[Here's a BB King book by Dave Rubin](B.B. King - Blues Legend: A Step-by-Step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques (Guitar Signature Licks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423457927/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_8S9wCbPX6G5TW) that you might be interested in. Dave is a FANTASTIC writer who does a great job trying to get inside the players' heads, rather than just telling you how to play the part.
I'd start reading more about China and checking out a lot of China blogs. China ranks pretty high on the list of countries that foreigners have trouble adapting to.
Here is a pretty good book about a guy who started a bar band as kind of a lark to play Blues music in China and ended up playing large music festivals: http://www.amazon.com/Big-China-Adventure-Reinventing-ebook/dp/B004HD61JA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341847716&sr=8-3&keywords=big+in+china
Is your idea feasible? It absolutely is for a lot of reasons others here have stated. You'll be a novelty and the Chinese have a strong curiosity for western culture. As others have said, it will probably go easier for you in some of the lesser known, yet still modern cities. Would avoid Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong as you will be one among many foreigners competing to do the same thing.
If you decide to go for it, you should check out Popup Chinese and Chinese Pod to get started on learning the language. Would recommend this over expensive yellow boxes. Also, get Pleco www.pleco.com for you tablet or smartphone. It is the absolute must have tool for learning Chinese.
Sounds adventurous. If you do it, I hope you come back to this subreddit and post a link to your blog, if you do one. Would love to see how it pans out.
> but there is a lot of memphis history behind beale,
>
> That's not really worth much honestly. Especially if you've only got a few hours
There's a lot of history behind the street in general, so for someone with a little knowledge of the history, it can be fascinating to see. Beale St Dynasty is a great book for the curious. :)
I don't know how much reddit cares about jazz, really, but no movie could ever compare to "Miles: The Autobiography". If you are interested in jazz, this is one of the most entertaining and informative books you will ever read. Miles was square at the center of most of the major stylistic movements in jazz, and he has incredible stories to tell about not only himself but also some of the most famous jazz musicians ever. I read this book from cover to cover at least once a year, simply because it is a total page-turner.
Miles's speech is like poetry - completely profane, totally real, absolutely raw. I learned what a versatile word "motherfucker" is from reading this book.
Don Cheadle is an amazing actor, but man. This movie cannot possibly measure up to the visceral thrills of this book.
The most obvious thing to say is that it isn't "written" at all. It's a kind of folk music, handed down by ear. Before audio recording it would have been learned from older musicians in person; after audio recording it could have been learned that way, at least in part.
Before audio recording there would have been natural geographical variations in style. Most blues musicians were "songsters", generally itinerant, travelling around picking up songs and entertaining, but many would have stayed more local. There was a lot of overlap between blues, folk, parlour songs, vaudeville, ragtime, etc. Performers sang and played anything that appealed to their audiences. It was only when blues suddenly became fashionable in the 1920s as the new record companies discovered how well it sold, that performers were asked to focus on blues tunes when recording. No ragtime or vaudeville comedy numbers please....
In terms of guitar technique, the piedmont style probably arose from banjo techniques, but perhaps also a way of imitating ragtime piano. The Delta style - often in open tuning with slide - had seemingly more influence from the parlour tunes of Henry Worrall (whose tune "Sebastopol" lent its name to open D tuning) and Hawaiian "slack key" guitar. Naturally there was overlap. Mississippi John Hurt, for example, straddles both styles.
The wiki pages on delta and piedmont styles reference some books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_blues - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_blues. I don't know those myself, but a good book on various blues myths is Elijah Wald's Escaping the Delta. Guitarist John Fahey wrote an excellent monograph on Charley Patton, dealing with both blues history and Patton's style and technique.
EDIT: a full PDF of the Fahey book (highly recommended if you want PhD detail) can be found here.
Madlib and his influences: Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Lee Perry, Melvin van Peebles etc. Every one can use a sampler but it's what you put into it that matters. I recommend studying workflow, discipline and inspiration rather than the technical side of things. This is a good start.
http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Autobiography-Davis/dp/0671725823
that's true (i agree with the word "typically" since there are many exceptions - you could argue a case for Sketches of Spain though there is a small silhouette of Miles), but i absolutely love the old blue note covers (i've got an artbook of them too). even then, certainly almost all of the covers were subdued or not "out there" like this one was
Miles Davis' autobiography Miles is really mind-blowing. He's extremely candid, but also a complete asshole, so it makes for a very interesting read. Also, Art Pepper's autobiography Straight Life is very interesting and heartbreaking. Really gets into his drug addiction, repeated trips to jail, his sexuality. One of the great musician bios in my opinion.
Mine would probably have to be "Miles: The Autobiography" by Miles Davis. An intense read at times, but a great look inside the brain of one of music's all-time greats, and one of the definitive examples of cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Autobiography-Davis/dp/0671725823/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1301760791&sr=8-3
It's not theory-oriented, but if you're really interested in this and related questions, I highly, highly recommend the books "Blues People" and "Black Music" by LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), which describes the evolutionary forces that led to your question. They are both shortish trade paperbacks.
I'm not an expert but The Blues Real Book is probably a decent place to start. Those books tend to be easy to use and have a good selection of tunes (I'm used to the jazz ones, but assume much the same goes for the blues ones too).
Be aware that any lead sheet for a blues tune will only give you a skeleton of the song; you'll need to refer to recordings to flesh it out into a performance and get it to sound right. But this will get you started.
Good time to ask this as I've just finished Escaping the Delta. It talks about the creation of blues in general and has a heavy focus on Robert in some chapters. Very good read!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060524278?pc_redir=1407876148&robot_redir=1
I can highly recommend this book if you are truly interested.
Red River Blues
R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, and Country is a great little book. It is worth it for the CD alone if he's into the obscure old-timey blues. Also, wrap yourself in bacon.
Something a little different today, this is from DCI Blues Masters Vol 3, here is a link to the DVD and here's the full session. I stumbled across this and thought someone else might enjoy the king of the blues breaking down some of his magic in this laid back lesson.
If you're not familiar with BB King this documentary is a good place to start, as well as his autobiography, Blues All Around Me.
This set of cards - Heroes of the Blues by Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural etc) is something quirky and cool:
https://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Blues-Boxed-Trading-Crumb/dp/0971008027
The pic of Robert Johnson you see on self posts in this sub is from that set.
Memoirs of musicians might suit your taste. I've read Miles and Lady Sings the Blues, both of which I really liked. There are lots more, though, and I'm sure most of them are filled with dysfunction, drugs, and mental illness.
If you want an easy, fun read, go for Tracy Morgan's I Am the New Black.
If you (or your gf) are really interested, check out Angela Davis' Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. She's actually transcribed all the lyrics of their recorded songs and most of the book is an analysis of the work from a feminist/sociological/historical perspective. It's really fascinating.
Story of the Blues - Paul Oliver
Favorite book on the my favorite subject.
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Blues-Paul-Oliver/dp/155553354X
It's not a modern youth subculture, but I'd strongly recommend David Grazien's Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs..
Jon Michael Spencer's Blues and Evil (University of Tennessee Press, 1993) provides some helpful background on this association, unless perhaps you are white, in which case the main thing Spencer has to say is that your racial privilege precludes you from getting the real meaning of the blues, ever. (Kidding.)
Just listen to a bb king album, and transcribe and memorize the solo.
Transcribing solos are building blocks to becoming a better musician.
EDIT: Check this out. https://www.amazon.com/B-B-King-Guitar-Recorded-Versions/dp/1480396206/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=bb+king+tab&qid=1565201902&s=gateway&sr=8-4
Listen to the recording on Spotify, and learn from here. Easy peasy.
Hm, maybe try Blues People? It talks about the struggle, of course, but it's positive and AA-universal.
> The Power of Black Music
I looked it up: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Black-Music-Interpreting-History/dp/0195109759 Looks cool.
Thanks.
Alternatively to listening to music and practicing the pentatonic and pentablues (I've been doing that to), since blues is a lot about the spirit and mood, it helps to really know it's history and where it came from.
Try getting your hands on the PBS documentaries "The Blues" produced by Martin Scorsese and also, the comic by Robert Crumb.
I'd just buy a blues fake book (maybe http://www.amazon.com/Real-Blues-Book-Leonard-Corp/dp/1423404513/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426142710&sr=8-2&keywords=blues+fake+book) then work at the songs in them. It'll be slow going at first trying to play the melody and chords at the same time, but you'll eventually get the hang of it and every song you learn will sound better than the last.
OK, I'll Start
B.B. King Blues All Around Me
Muddy Waters Can't be Satisfied
Robert Palmer Deep Blues
Alan Lomax Land Where the Blues Began
Robert Johnson Escaping the Delta
This thread is going to get sloppy with opinions... I recommend everybody put down the laptop and go pick up one of these two books...
https://www.amazon.com/Miles-Autobiography-Davis/dp/0671725823
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_People
Biographies and autobiographies are the way to go, I think – there's simply too much to write a book about everyone at once, not to mention the story of jazz is really the sum of intersecting individual journeys and solos, not some kind of burgeoning volksgeist. I recommend Miles and Space is the Place
I don't have this book, but it looks like it could be a contender.
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Note-Album-Cover-Art/dp/0811836886
You'd think by now they'd have a "complete works of Reid Miles on Blue Note" book available. :-/
You can buy this book
https://www.amazon.com/Crumbs-Heroes-Blues-Jazz-Country/dp/0810930862
link
[words] (url)
just take the space inbetween the parentheses out
Here is the mobile version of your link
I came here to post this. It's called Miles: The Autobiography and it is fucking incredible.
Glyn Johns - Sound Man
The Wrecking Crew
Making Rumors
Trouble Boys
Daniel Lanois - Soul Mining
Miles
Adam Gussow
Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir
http://www.amazon.com/Mister-Satans-Apprentice-Memoir-ebook/dp/B004LB49BK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370108125&sr=1-3&keywords=adam+gussow