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    If the Blues is a new interest for you, I recommend "The Land Where The Blues Began" by Alan Lomax. The early musicologist and his father made it possible for us to understand and enjoy the music of Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Robert Johnson, Stephen Calt, Stefan Grossman and so many other  fine musicians. (I live 23 miles south of Clarksdale, home of the Blues Museum .. a great place to visit. Driving around this region, there are still many "jukes" and blues bars to discover. We like to go to Ground Zero in Clarksdale and also the Hopson Plantation just outside of town. The plantation features a very unique bed and breakfast.)

   Quite a few blues selections are listed below with links to Amazon. You're also invited to do a search here. Simply write in the keyword(s) and select Go. For instance, write in Robert Johnson and click on the word "Go".

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Editorial Reviews/Amazon.com

"Land Where the Blues Began"
Co-founder--with folklorist father John A. Lomax--of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, Alan Lomax traveled the South "from the Brazos bottoms of Texas to the tidewater country of Virginia" in search of the wellspring of American blues. Previously the author of Mister Jelly Roll, Lomax stalks the ghosts of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy and Charlie Patton, among many other blues pioneers. This winner of the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction is more than just another profile of a musical genre. It's an intimate diary of a purely American art form born of a powerful mix of despair and hope.

The World Don't Owe Me Nothing, David Honeyboy Edwards; State of the Blues, Jeff Dunas; Robert Johnson, Kings of the Blues; Blues, Son House

"The World Don't Owe Me Nothing"
This vivid oral snapshot of an America that planted the blues is full of rhythmic grace. From the son of a sharecropper to an itinerant bluesman, Honeyboy's stories of good friends Charlie Patton, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, and Robert Johnson are a godsend to blues fans. History buffs will marvel at his unique perspective and firsthand accounts of the 1927 flood, vagrancy laws, makeshift courts in the back of seed stores, plantation life, and the Depression.

Robert Johnson's story presents a fascinating paradox: Why did this genius of the blues excite so little interest when his records were first released in the 1930s? And how did this brilliant but obscure musician come to be hailed long after his death as the most important artist in early blues and a founding father of rock 'n' roll?

Elijah Wald provides the first thorough examination of Johnson's work and makes it the centerpiece for a fresh look at the entire history of the blues. He traces the music's rural folk roots but focuses on its evolution as a hot, hip African-American pop style, placing the great blues stars in their proper place as innovative popular artists during one of the most exciting periods in American music. He then goes on to explore how the image of the blues was reshaped by a world of generally white fans, with very different standards and dreams.

The result is a view of the blues from the inside, based not only on recordings but also on the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, and original research. Wald presents previously unpublished studies of what people on plantations were actually listening to during the blues era, showing the larger world in which Johnson's music was conceived. What emerges is a new respect and appreciation for the creators of what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music.

Guitarist's Guide to Major and Minor, Hal Leonard

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