The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings

by Tony Russell and Chris Smith

From its roots in the American South to today's world stage, the journey of the blues has encompassed countless artists and recordings. But how can you find the best of them? The Penguin Guide to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140513841
• ISBN13: 9780140513844
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 923 Pages
• Weight: 3.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

THE BEST OF ALL THE BLUES GUIDE BOOKS

Beautifully written by acknowledged experts, this is the one single volume that you can thoroughly trust. The opinions are sound in just about every case, the digest of ancilliary information is extraordinarily helpful, it's often witty - dryly so - and is, without doubt. the most comprehensive and wide ranging volume dedicated to blues criticism. I've been listening since 1963 and I wish I had had something even half this good then. It's the only reference book -outside of the discographies- that you'll ever need.

Sometimes a very tough read

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.