Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians

by Lawrence Cohn (Editor), B.B. King (Foreword)

An illustrated history of the blues captures the great variety of this uniquely American music form through vintage photographs and a lively text. National ad/promo.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction, African American, Biography

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[Brad McKenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books traces the history of the blues from it's roots. It comes from African Tribal songs, field holler on the plantations, prison songs, and gospel music among many other influences. The Blues is a lifestyle, the troubles unique to blacks in the south needed an outlet. Blues was one of them. There was very little they could do to get out of their troubles, but they could sing.

I love blues music but have trouble hearing some of the old stuff recorded by the likes of Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress back in the 30s (a later recording trip took place in the 60s and that was a little better), so I've turned to reading about it. If you're as passionate about the blues as I am, this is a great book. Though, beware, each chapter is written by a different person and thus not all chapters are created equal. Most of them can also get a little heavy on the name dropping, it seems that they're just listing as many bluesmen (and women) as they can to fill up a paragraph. If you don't care about the blues, then why are you even reading this review?

[Austen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible trip through blues history. So much more to the blues than just the crossroads / deal with the devil of Robert Johnson legend. So much detail in this book, it's hard to cover it all, but he gives it a very good attempt from the beginnings of field hollerin' all the way through the 1960's blues renaissance, the effect/change of blues into R&B/rock, and the future of the blues.

Basically, it's more of a textbook than anything else. If you're as much a fan of the blues as I am (good thing I live in Memphis) then you will enjoy this. Looking for tales and lyrics and interviews, it's a great reference source. If you're looking for something more personal, might leave you a bit dry.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing But the Blues: The Music and The Musicians by Lawrence Cohn (Abbeville Press Publishers 1993) (781.643). I have been interested in the history of the blues since 1974. This book is a fantastic resource. It is an exhaustively compiled blues history. It seems like every blues musician who performed before 1970 is mentioned in this book somewhere and likely has his or her photo in there as well. Two thumbs up to author Lawrence Cohn for doing the heavy lifting required to pull this history together. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 2/10/17. I purchased a (PB) copy in fair condition from McKays on 1/10/17 for $6.00. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[Matt Reese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth the price for the pictures alone. It covers an amazing amount of material. I tend to be fascinated by the early Blues much more than the contemporary Blues. This book starts to lose my interest a little bit as it moves along the timeline. That's just me though.

[Jay Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic pictures and well written examinations of blues history from a variety of perspectives make this a must read for any blues aficionado. Although slightly dated (it was written in 1993), the historical pieces hold up well.

[Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must have...

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book with me in it HAS to be good!