Obsessions of a Music Geek, Volume I: Blues Guitar Giants is the debut ebook from veteran musician and music journalist Ted Drozdowski. The book, the first in a series, focuses on seven guitarists from the blues pantheon: John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, Johnny Winter, Freddie King, Michael Bloomfield, Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Their stories, musical approaches, perspectives and historical impact are explored through warm and insightful interviews and essays d...

A companion book to the PBS documentary series exploring the history of the blues and its contribution to American culture and music worldwide.A companion to the groundbreaking documentary series, this volume is a unique and timeless celebration of the blues, from writers and artists as esteemed and revered as the music that moved them.Included in this stunning collection are:Essays by David Halberstam, Hilton Als, Suzan-Lori Parks, Elmore Leona...

The heartbreakers, lovemakers and dreamers always at the top of the music charts are revealed in probing, wide-ranging and provocative interviews that first appeared in Playboy magazine. From the forefathers of modern music Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and Bob Dylan to larger-than-life rock gods Elton John, David Bowie and Frank Zappa to the kings of hip-hop Jay-Z and Kanye West, the musicians who never missed a beat and have turned sound into magic reflect the very best of the 50 years of the ...

“A thoughtful, entertaining history of obsessed music collectors and their quest for rare early 78 rpm records” (Los Angeles Times), Do Not Sell at Any Price is a fascinating, complex story of preservation, loss, obsession, and art.Before MP3s, CDs, and cassette tapes, even before LPs or 45s, the world listened to music on fragile, 10-inch shellac discs that spun at 78 revolutions per minute. While vinyl has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, ...

Bonham is a complete portrait of the drummers' drummer written by his brother Mick Bonham. With exclusive interviews and previously un-published photos from the Bonham collection, as well as a complete Led Zeppelin chronology and history of Bonham's earlier musical career.

Howlin’ Wolf was a musical giant in every way. He stood six foot three, weighed almost three hundred pounds, wore size sixteen shoes, and poured out his darkest sorrows onstage in a voice like a raging chainsaw. Half a century after his first hits, his sound still terrifies and inspires.Born Chester Burnett in 1910, the Wolf survived a grim childhood and hardscrabble youth as a sharecropper in Mississippi. He began his career playing and singing with the first Delta blues stars for...

Informed by my years as a professional Blues musician and writer for Blues Revue magazine, my eBook presents some of my best column, snapshots and the stories behind them, and (intentional) Blues fiction. It is updated with current introductions to each story or photo.

I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone chronicles Jim Dickinson's extraordinary life in the Memphis music scene of the fifties and sixties and how he went on to play with and produce a rich array of artists, including Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder, Duane Allman, Arlo Guthrie, and Albert King. With verve and wit, Dickinson (1941–2009) describes his trip to Blind Lemon's grave on the Texas flatlands as a college student and how that encounter inspired his return to Memphis. Ba...

Teach yourself how to play keyboard with our easy blues keyboard lessons for beginners.***Comes with online access to free audio demonstrating all examples. Hear how each one is played by a teacher, then play along.***"This book can get you started quickly. It is easy to follow and the music you make will sound great. [...] Good luck to all beginning blues enthusiasts, I know this book will help you." - La Grande, OR [sheetmusicplus.com]Pro...

Musicians and music scholars rightly focus on the sounds of the blues and the colorful life stories of blues performers. Equally important and, until now, inadequately studied are the lyrics. The international contributors to Nobody Knows Where the Blues Come From explore this aspect of the blues and establish the significance of African American popular song as a neglected form of oral history."High Water Everywhere: Blues and Gospel Commentary on the 1927 Mississippi Riv...

The rich, complex lives of African Americans in Texas were often neglected by the mainstream media, which historically seldom ventured into Houston's Fourth Ward, San Antonio's East Side, South Dallas, or the black neighborhoods in smaller cities. When Bill Minutaglio began writing for Texas newspapers in the 1970s, few large publications had more than a token number of African American journalists, and they barely acknowledged the things of lasting importance to the African American commu...

At a crossroads in the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the Devil so that he could become a guitar virtuoso and King of the Delta Blues.Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues will tell you where that legendary deal was supposed to have been made and guide you to all the other hallowed grounds that nourished Mississippi's signature music.Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, Jimmie Rodgers, Bessie Smith, Muddy Wate...