Country blues · History · Essential reading
Back to the bluesBig Creek’s reading shelf
Essential histories, biographies and first-hand accounts for anyone who wants to hear the music with a deeper understanding of the people, places and conditions behind it.
Where to begin
This shelf moves from broad blues histories to the lives of major figures, neglected pioneers and the voices of musicians themselves. David Evans’s study of Tommy Johnson is featured above; the complete list below offers several different doors into the blues.
The cover shelf
Tommy Johnson
David Evans
Deep Blues
Robert Palmer · Publisher page →
The Story of the Blues
Paul Oliver · Publisher page →
The Land Where the Blues Began
Alan Lomax
Escaping the Delta
Elijah Wald
Up Jumped the Devil
Bruce Conforth & Gayle Dean Wardlow
Can’t Be Satisfied
Robert Gordon
Moanin’ at Midnight
James Segrest & Mark Hoffman
Bessie
Chris Albertson
Blues All Around Me
B.B. King with David Ritz
Woman with Guitar
Paul & Beth Garon
Conversation with the Blues
Paul Oliver
The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing
David “Honeyboy” Edwards
A vivid introduction to Delta blues, its social environment and its movement north toward Chicago. Particularly strong on Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Son House and Muddy Waters.
One of the broadest classic histories, covering country blues, vaudeville blues, urban styles, recording and migration. Richly illustrated in many editions.
A mixture of fieldwork, history, encounters and first-hand recollections from Mississippi musicians, workers and prisoners. Essential, although Lomax’s role and methods should also be read critically.
Challenges many romantic myths about Robert Johnson and places him inside the wider popular music heard by Black audiences during his lifetime.
Originally published as LeRoi Jones. Examines blues and jazz as expressions of African American social, economic and cultural history. Influential, challenging and best read alongside newer scholarship.
A substantial illustrated collection of essays covering different periods, regions and styles, with excellent historical photographs.
Focuses on the earliest recorded guitarists and the development of blues guitar before the Great Depression.
A readable general history that connects rural blues, classic female singers, Chicago blues and later developments.
The most thoroughly researched modern biography of Robert Johnson, built from documents and interviews with people connected to his life.
A detailed and highly readable account of Muddy Waters, from Mississippi plantation life to the centre of post-war Chicago blues.
A powerful biography of Howlin’ Wolf that also provides an excellent picture of the Delta, Memphis and the Chess Records era.
The classic biography of Bessie Smith, separating the singer’s documented life from decades of exaggeration and legend.
King’s own account of his childhood, Beale Street, life on the road, his music and the changing blues business.
Restores Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s importance as a singer, guitarist and vital bridge between gospel, blues and rock ’n’ roll.
The essential biography of Little Walter and a detailed study of amplified blues harmonica and the Chicago scene.
Dixon’s story as songwriter, bassist, producer and one of the central figures behind the Chess Records sound.
A serious biography of Huddie Ledbetter that goes beyond the simplified prison-discovery legend.
A carefully researched biography examining both Hopkins’s music and the contradictory stories he told about his life.
A modern biography gathering the scattered evidence surrounding Blind Lemon Jefferson, one of the most influential and mysterious figures in early Texas blues.
A major documentary study of Patton, his recordings, associates and position at the beginning of Delta blues history.
Follows Son House through the Delta, prison, religious conflict, disappearance and remarkable rediscovery during the 1960s.
An uncompromising and sometimes controversial portrait of Skip James and the blues rediscovery movement.
An important study of Memphis Minnie as guitarist, songwriter, bandleader and one of the most successful blues artists of her generation.
Part blues history and part detective story about locating musicians, relatives, records, photographs and documents connected with forgotten pre-war artists.
Profiles a wide range of Texas musicians, including major names and regional performers who rarely receive full biographies.
Fieldwork-based portraits of Mississippi musicians and communities, with particular value for understanding performers who never became international stars.
Built from interviews recorded in 1960, allowing both renowned and obscure musicians to describe their music, work, communities and personal lives in their own words.
One of the finest first-person accounts of life as a travelling Delta musician and a witness to the world of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and their contemporaries.
Historic interviews from Living Blues with Muddy Waters, Little Walter, T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King and lesser-documented artists.
A collection of musicians’ stories, jokes, memories and personal narratives, valuable for the voices of regional performers as well as recognised figures.
Combines interviews, photographs and field recordings from Mississippi blues communities.