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If you:
Wanna know more about the blues or specific blues artists AND/OR are
Overwhelmed by the sheer mass of books out there AND/OR
Don't know just what book(s) to read or buy AND/OR
Don't have a Billy Gates budget available AND/OR
Want to minimize overlap on your Essential Blues Books THEN
this page might very well end your misery!

Essential Blues Books...
This page is an attempt to present "the-must-have" selection of up to 5 books and for some topics up to 10 books for a certain blues related topic. The central question to be answered for each topic is: "If I wanted the top-5(10) books on blues-topic, which are the books to read or to have?". A blues-topic could be for example: "The Blues", "Pre-war Country Blues" or an artist like "John Lee Hooker".

Sources
My sources for this page for starters are primarily my own still very small Essential Blues Books, local libraries, blues related internet websites and - I hope - you, the visitors of this website. So if you have read or know off "the best" books on certain blues topics, please let me know!.

Available topics so far:

General topics	The Blues	Chicago Blues	Delta Blues
.	Folk Blues	Country Blues	.
Artists * = additions of March 2000	* Blake, Arthur "Blind" Broonzy, Big Bill Clapton, Eric Dixon, Willie Guy, Buddy Handy, W.C. Holiday, Billie * Hooker, John Lee * Hopkins, Lightnin'	James, Etta James, Skip Johnson, Robert King, B.B. Lipscomb, Mance Ma Rainey Mayall, John Memphis Minnie	Muddy Waters Patton, Charley Smith, Bessie Vaughan, Stevie Ray
Multiple Artists	Blues Women of the 20's	.	.
People	.	.	.
Who is Who's, Guides & Encyclopedia's	Who is Who	Guide	Encyclopedia
Blues Instruments	Blues Guitar	Blues Harp	Blues Piano
.	Misc. Instruments	.	.
Slang/language & Meaning in the Blues	African-American slang	Meaning in the Blues	.
Places	Beale Street	Maxwell Street	.
Album Reviews & Collections	Reviews	Collections	.
Lyrics Collections	.	.	.

General Topics

The Blues
Title	Author(s)
Conversation With the Blues	Paul Oliver
Deep Blues	Robert Palmer
The Land Where the Blues Began	Alan Lomax
Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians	Lawrence Cohn (Editor), Mary Katherine Aldin, Bruce Bastin
The Story of the Blues	Paul Oliver
New! (March) Blues for Dummies	Lonnie Brooks, Cub Koda, Wayne Baker Brooks, Dan Aykroyd
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.	.
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.	.

Delta Blues
Title	Author
Deep Blues, A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta	Robert Palmer
Blues from the Delta	William R. Ferris
The Land Where the Blues Began	Alan Lomax
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.	.

Chicago Blues
Title	Author
Chicago Blues: The City and the Music	Mike Rowe
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Folk Blues
Title	Author
Big Road Blues, Tradition & Creativity in the Folk Blues	David Evans
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Country Blues
Title	Author
The Country Blues	Samual B. Charters
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Artists

New! (March) Blake, Arthur "Blind"
Title	Author
Blind Blake	Aaron Stang
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Broonzy, Big Bill
Title	Author
Big Bill Blues: William Broonzy's Story	William Broonzy/Paul Oliver
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Clapton, Eric
Title	Author
Eric Clapton: A Life in the Blues	Unknown
Eric Clapton: Lost in the Blues	Harry Shapiro
Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton	Michael Schumacher
Clapton!: An Authorized Biography	Ray Coleman
Eric Clapton: In His Own Words	Eric Clapton/Marc Roberty

Dixon, Willie
Title	Author
I Am the Blues : The Willie Dixon Story	Willie Dixon, Den, Elizabeth and Don Snowden
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Guy, Buddy
Title	Author
Damn Right I've Got the Blues: Buddy Guy and the Blues Roots of Rock-And-Roll	Donald E. Wilcock
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Handy, W.C.
Title	Author
Father of the Blues: An Autobiography	Arna Bontemps, W.C. Handy
Blues: An Anthology: Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs	W.C. Handy
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.	.
.	.

Holiday, Billie
Title	Author
Lady Sings the Blues	William Dufty, Billie Holiday
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday	Angela Yvonne Davis
Wishing on the Moon : The Life and Times of Billie Holiday	Donald Clarke
Billie Holiday Companion : Seven Decades of Commentary (Companion Series)	Leslie Course
Billie's Blues : The Billie Holiday Story, 1933-1959	John Chilton, Buck Clayton

New! (March) Hooker, john Lee
Title	Author
Boogie Man - The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century	Charles Shaar Murray
John Lee Hooker- A Blues Legend : With Notes & Tablature	Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
John Lee Hooker Vintage Blues	John Lee Hooker
Mad Man Blues-John Lee Hooker	John Lee Hooker
.	.

New! (March) Hopkins, Lightnin'
Title	Author
Lightnin' Hopkins: The Ultimate Texas Bluesman	Lightnin' Hopkins
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James, Etta
Title	Author
Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story	Etta James, David Ritz
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..	.

James, Skip
Title	Author
I’d Rather Be The Devil: Skip James and the Blues	Stephen Calt
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Johnson, Robert
Title	Author
Love in Vain : A Vision of Robert Johnson	Alan Greenberg
Searching for Robert Johnson	Peter Guralnick
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.	.
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King, B.B.
Title	Author
Blues All Around Me : The Autobiography of B.B. King	B. B. King/David Ritz
The B.B. King Companion: Five Decades of Commentary	Richard Kostelanetz
The Arival of B.B. King	Charles Sawyer
B.B. King: King of the Blues	Columbia Pictures Pubs.
Blues Boy: The Life and Music of B.B. King	Sebastian Danchin
Every Day I Sing the Blues: The Story of B.B. King	David Shirley

Lipscomb, Mance
Title	Author
I Say Me for a Parable : The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman	Glen Alyn (Compiler), Taj Mahal, Mance Lipscomb
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Ma Rainey
Title	Author
Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey	Sandra R. Lieb
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday	Angela Yvonne Davis
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.	.
.	.

Mayall, John
Title	Author
John Mayall: Blues Breaker	Richard Newman
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Memphis Minnie
Title	Author
Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues	Paul Garon, Beth Garon
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Muddy Waters
Title	Author
Muddy Waters: The Mojo Man	Sandra B. Tooze
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Patton, Charley
Title	Author
King of the Delta Blues, The Life and Music of Charlie Patton	Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow
Charley Patton	Fahey
The Voice of the Delta: Charley Patton and the Mississippi blues traditions, influences, and comparisons : an international symposium	Unknown
.	.
.	.

Smith, Bessie
Title	Author
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday	Angela Yvonne Davis
Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues	Chris Albertson/Gunther Schuller
Somebody's Angel Child : The Story of Bessie Smith	Carman Moore
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.	.

T-Bone Walker
Title	Author
Stormy Monday: the T-Bone Walker Story	Helen & Stanley Dance
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Vaughan, Stevie Ray
Title	Author
Stevie Ray: Soul to Soul	Keri Leigh
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Caught in the Crossfire	Joe Nick Patoski, Crawford Bill, Bill
Guitar World Presents Stevie Ray Vaughan: Stevie Ray - In His Own Words	Jeff Kitts, Brad Tolinski, Garold Steinblatt
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.	.

Multiple Artists

Blues Women Of The 20's
Title	Author
Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920's	Daphne Duval Harrison
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday	Angela Yvonne Davis
New! (March) Blueswomen : Profiles of 37 Early Performers, with an Anthology of Lyrics, 1920-1945	Anna Stong Bourgeois
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.	.

People

People
Title	Author
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Who's is Who's, Guides & Encyclopedia's

Who's is Who
Title	Author
Blues Who's Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers	Sheldon Harris
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.	.
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Guides
Title	Author
The New Blackwell Guide to Recorded Blues	Paul Oliver
All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues Recordings	Michael Erlewine (Editor), Vladimir Bogdanov (Editor), Chris Woodstar
.	.
.	.
.	.

Encyclopedia
Title	Author
Encyclopedia of the Blues	Gerard Herzhaft, Paul Harris, Jerry Haussler, Anton J. Mikofsky
The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia	Robert Santelli
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.	.
.	.

Blues Instruments

Blues Guitar
Title	Author
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Blues Harp
Title	Author
Beginning Blues Harp (with CD-ROM)	Don Baker
Blues Harp Songbook	Tony Grover
Bending the Blues	David Harp
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.	.

Blues Piano
Title	Author
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Miscellaneous Instruments
Title	Author
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Slang/Language & Meaning In The Blues

Slang/Language
Title	Author
Juba To Jive: A Dictionary Of African-American Slang	Clarence Major
Jazz Talk	Robert Gold
.	.
.	.
.	.

Meaning In The Blues
Title	Author
Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues	Paul Oliver
Conversation With the Blues	Paul Oliver
.	.
.	.
.	.

Places

Beale Street
Title	Author
Beale Street: Crossroads of America's Music	William S. Worley, Ernest Withers
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Maxwell Street
Title	Author
New! Maxwell Street, Survival in a Bazaar	Ira Berkow
New! The Maxwell Street Blues	Michael Raleigh
.	.
.	.
.	.

Album Reviews & Collections

Album Reviews
Title	Author
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Album Collections
Title	Author
The Best of the Blues: The 101 Essential Blues Albums	Robert Santinelli
The Blues CD Listener's Guide: The Best on CD	Howard Blumenthal
Musichound Blues: The Essential Album Guide	Gary Graff, Leland Rucker
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.	.

Lyrics Collections

Lyrics Collections
Title	Author
Blues: An Anthology: CompleteWords And Music of 53 Great Songs	W.C. Handy
New! (March) The Blues Line: A Collection of Blues Lyrics	Eric Sackheim
New! (March) Downhome Blues Lyrics: An Anthology from the Post-World War II Era	Jeff Todd Titon
New! (March) The Country Blues	Samual B. Charters
New! (March) Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues	Paul Oliver
New! (March) Blueswomen : Profiles of 37 Early Performers, with an Anthology of Lyrics, 1920-1945	Anna Stong Bourgeois

Site created by:
Bluesman Harry
Page last updated on:
August 18 2000