The Blues Route

by Hugh Merrill

A columnist describes his cross-country odyssey in search of America's indigenous blues music, in a chronicle of the history of blues music, its legendary musicians, and its promoters, disc jockeys, and record producers

Genres: Music

Hardcover

First published July 1, 1990

Reviews

[East Bay J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Merrill’s The Blues Route is a sort of combination of travel writing, myth chasing and anthropology. In 1986, Merrill traveled around the country to various locales once known as hot spots for the blues. He visited folks as diverse as C.J. Chenier and Rockin’ Dopsie in New Orleans, Rufus Thomas in Memphis, Bo Diddley and Tom Cannon (Charley Patton’s nephew) in Mississippi and Jimmie McCracklin in Oakland. The result is a fairly concise overview of where the blues and related music were in ’86. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in a very good place. Over and over, Merrill found that the blues was largely forgotten or was being gentrified and commoditized for use by businessmen, city leaders and hucksters to draw tourists and make a buck. There is a feeling of disappointment and disillusion about Merrill’s travels, as if even meeting some of the great living performers of the “later” blues era still wasn’t enough to hold off the big let down. Regardless, The Blues Route is an interesting, entertaining read and carries some of the bittersweet flavor of the blues songs themselves.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wavering and a between 3 and 4 stars... It's a simple, unpolished book. The author conveys the ideas that the blues have always been co-opted - partly taken over, used, and half-buried once the profit margins have dropped - but it continue to live as too pure, relevant, and immortal to simply go into the past. The book summarizes a series of conversations - blues musicians, record company executives that were tied to the blues or r&b, white people in the Delta who seem to sugarcoat or refuse to deal with the context for the development of the blues. The author did a great job letting these people speak and conveying his joy, frustration, irritation, at these interactions. It's not an epic journal, just a few stops across the U.S. He doesn't try to make it more than a book about exploring what is still alive in the blues world as of the mid-1980s. But I learned much about blues across the US, and his love for the blues leads me to keep exploring and building my own experiences with North American music.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love jazz and the blues! Hugh Merrill makes this book feel like one long road trip and it's the perfect format to learn about the history of the blues, jazz, and individual recording artists from way back in the day. The book was published in the 80s, so some of the references do feel outdated, but the themes discussed within the context of what has always made the blues and jazz so popular (particularly racism and classicism) are still as striking and relevant today as they ever were. This might not be the best read for someone who is just a casual listener, but for a true fan of blues and jazz, it's a treat.