Download or read book The Last Bluesman written by Ran Walker and published by 45 Alternate Press, LLC. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * This novel was originally published as Mojo's Guitar. “Ran Walker's The Last Bluesman plays an authentic Blues song on the page, filled with all the sorrow, heartache, and beauty that entails. This layered, haunting book is worth listening to.” ~ Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day “Ran Walker brings the blues into the 21st century and shows us how we can never forget our roots as long as we keep the love in our hearts. Thank you, Ran, for picking up the guitar of fiction and fretting together characters of such warmth, depth, and humanity.” ~ Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olio and Leadbelly “In The Last Bluesman, readers encounter a modern-day blues novel, complete with a forgotten musician and a historically disenfranchised past. Walker's clarity of style and smooth, mellifluous language render this effort one to be proud of. This work places him among the cadre of new black voices budding with fresh, ripe tales of a past and present yet to untold.” ~ Daniel Black, author of Perfect Peace and Twelve Gates to the City "The Last Bluesman is a Southern tale ripe with lust, regret, death. It epitomizes the blues. Read with a stiff drink in hand." ~ jewel bush, Founder of MelaNated Writers Collective (New Orleans, LA) “The Last Bluesman touches deep in the soul. The words jump off the page, and I feel like I'm right there with the characters of the story. And the Blues...it's ever so present and honest!” ~ Lamont Jack Pearley Talking Bout The Blues, NYC “The characters become so familiar, their conflicts so realistic, and their dilemmas and dreams so tangible, that as a reader you will feel as though you were in the Mississippi Delta along with them.” ~ Sabin Prentis, author of Compared to What and Better Left Unsaid A first-time novelist is assigned the task of interviewing a legendary bluesman for a magazine article. A fifteen-year-old boy struggles to make sense of his parents’ deaths by turning to blues music. An estranged son seeks answers for his father's absence. Discover how these lives are forever altered by their interactions with an all but forgotten bluesman named Morris “Mojo” Jones. With all of the color and flavor of the Mississippi Delta, The Last Bluesman is a rare glimpse into a world rarely explored in literary fiction.

Download or read book The Last Bluesman written by Ran Walker and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * This novel was originally published as Mojo's Guitar. "Ran Walker's The Last Bluesman plays an authentic Blues song on the page, filled with all the sorrow, heartache, and beauty that entails. This layered, haunting book is worth listening to." ~ Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day "Ran Walker brings the blues into the 21st century and shows us how we can never forget our roots as long as we keep the love in our hearts. Thank you, Ran, for picking up the guitar of fiction and fretting together characters of such warmth, depth, and humanity." ~ Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olio and Leadbelly "In The Last Bluesman, readers encounter a modern-day blues novel, complete with a forgotten musician and a historically disenfranchised past. Walker's clarity of style and smooth, mellifluous language render this effort one to be proud of. This work places him among the cadre of new black voices budding with fresh, ripe tales of a past and present yet to untold." ~ Daniel Black, author of Perfect Peace and Twelve Gates to the City "The Last Bluesman is a Southern tale ripe with lust, regret, death. It epitomizes the blues. Read with a stiff drink in hand." ~ jewel bush, Founder of MelaNated Writers Collective (New Orleans, LA) "The Last Bluesman touches deep in the soul. The words jump off the page, and I feel like I'm right there with the characters of the story. And the Blues...it's ever so present and honest!" ~ Lamont Jack Pearley Talking Bout The Blues, NYC "The characters become so familiar, their conflicts so realistic, and their dilemmas and dreams so tangible, that as a reader you will feel as though you were in the Mississippi Delta along with them." ~ Sabin Prentis, author of Compared to What and Better Left Unsaid A first-time novelist is assigned the task of interviewing a legendary bluesman for a magazine article. A fifteen-year-old boy struggles to make sense of his parents' deaths by turning to blues music. An estranged son seeks answers for his father's absence.​ Discover how these lives are forever altered by their interactions with an all but forgotten bluesman named Morris "Mojo" Jones. ​ With all of the color and flavor of the Mississippi Delta, The Last Bluesman is a rare glimpse into a world rarely explored in literary fiction.

Download or read book Bluesman written by Andre Dubus III and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2001-02-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With House of Sand and Fog, his National Book Award-nominated novel, Andre Dubus III demonstrated his mastery of the complexities of character and desire. In this earlier novel he captures a roiling time in American history and the coming-of-age of a boy who must decide between desire, ambition, and duty. In the summer of 1967, Leo Suther has one more year of high school to finish and a lot more to learn. He's in love with the beautiful Allie Donovan who introduces him to her father, Chick — a construction foreman and avowed Communist. Soon Leo finds himself in the midst of a consuming love affair and an intense testing of his political values. Chick's passionate views challenge Leo's perspective on the escalating Vietnam conflict and on just where he stands in relation to the new people in his life. Throughout his — and the nation's — unforgettable "summer of love," Leo is learning the language of the blues, which seem to speak to the mourning he feels for his dead mother, his occasionally distant father, and the youth which is fast giving way to manhood.

Download or read book Brother Robert written by Annye C. Anderson and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Rolling Stone-Kirkus Best Music Book of 2020 “[Brother Robert} book does much to pull the blues master out of the fog of myth.”—Rolling Stone An intimate memoir by blues legend Robert Johnson's stepsister, including new details about his family, music, influences, tragic death, and musical afterlife Though Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven years young and relatively unknown at the time of his tragic death in 1938, his enduring recordings have solidified his status as a progenitor of the Delta blues style. And yet, while his music has retained the steadfast devotion of modern listeners, much remains unknown about the man who penned and played these timeless tunes. Few people alive today actually remember what Johnson was really like, and those who do have largely upheld their silence-until now. In Brother Robert, nonagenarian Annye C. Anderson sheds new light on a real-life figure largely obscured by his own legend: her kind and incredibly talented stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This book chronicles Johnson's unconventional path to stardom, from the harrowing story behind his illegitimate birth, to his first strum of the guitar on Anderson's father's knee, to the genre-defining recordings that would one day secure his legacy. Along the way, readers are gifted not only with Anderson's personal anecdotes, but with colorful recollections passed down to Anderson by members of their family-the people who knew Johnson best. Readers also learn about the contours of his working life in Memphis, never-before-disclosed details about his romantic history, and all of Johnson's favorite things, from foods and entertainers to brands of tobacco and pomade. Together, these stories don't just bring the mythologized Johnson back down to earth; they preserve both his memory and his integrity. For decades, Anderson and her family have ignored the tall tales of Johnson "selling his soul to the devil" and the speculative to fictionalized accounts of his life that passed for biography. Brother Robert is here to set the record straight. Featuring a foreword by Elijah Wald and a Q&A with Anderson, Wald, Preston Lauterbach, and Peter Guralnick, this book paints a vivid portrait of an elusive figure who forever changed the musical landscape as we know it.

Download or read book I Ain t Studdin Ya written by Bobby Rush and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experience music history with this memoir by one of the last of the genuine old school Blues and R&B legends, the Grammy-winning dynamic showman Bobby Rush. This memoir charts the extraordinary rise to fame of living blues legend, Bobby Rush. Born Emmett Ellis, Jr. in Homer, Louisiana, he adopted the stage name Bobby Rush out of respect for his father, a pastor. As a teenager, Rush acquired his first real guitar and started playing in juke joints in Little Rock, Arkansas, donning a fake mustache to trick club owners into thinking he was old enough to gain entry. He led his first band in Arkansas between Little Rock and Pine Bluff in the 1950s. It was there he first had Elmore James play in his band. Rush later relocated to Chicago to pursue his musical career and started to work with Earl Hooker, Luther Allison, and Freddie King, and sat in with many of his musical heroes, such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. Rush eventually began leading his own band in the 1960s, crafting his own distinct style of funky blues, and recording a succession of singles for various labels. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Rush finally scored a hit with "Chicken Heads." More recordings followed, including an album which went on to be listed in the Top 10 blues albums of the 1970s by Rolling Stone and a handful of regional jukebox favorites including "Sue" and "I Ain't Studdin' Ya." And Rush's career shows no signs of slowing down now. The man once beloved for performing in local jukejoints is now headlining major music/blues festivals, clubs, and theaters across the U.S. and as far as Japan and Australia. At age eighty-six, he is still on the road for over 200 days a year. His lifelong hectic tour schedule has earned him the affectionate title "King of the Chitlin' Circuit," from Rolling Stone. In 2007, he earned the distinction of being the first blues artist to play at the Great Wall of China. His renowned stage act features his famed shake dancers, who personify his funky blues and his ribald sense of humor. He was featured in Martin Scorcese's The Blues docuseries on PBS, a documentary film called Take Me to the River, performed with Dan Aykroyd on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and most recently had a cameo in the Golden Globe nominated Netflix film, Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy. He was recently given the highest Blues Music Award honor of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year. His songs have also been featured in TV shows and films including HBO's Ballers and major motion pictures like Black Snake Moan, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Considered by many to be the greatest bluesman currently performing, this book will give readers unparalleled access into the man, the myth, the legend: Bobby Rush.

Download or read book A Scourge of Vipers written by Bruce DeSilva and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Rhode Island's governor proposes the legalization of sports gambling, journalist Liam Mulligan investigates the increase in organized crime and becomes a target after he uncovers clues in a senator's death.

Download or read book Big Boss Man written by Will Romano and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2006 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alcoholic. Epileptic. Technically challenged. Described as all this and worse, Jimmy Reed nevertheless overcame these roadblocks to become perhaps the most successful R&B/pop crossover artist of the '50s. In "Big Boss Man," musicians, family members, and those whose lives Reed touched offer revealing and heart-wrenching insights into this now-revered bluesman. Although Reed's alcoholism was no secret, its effect on his musicianship is less understood -- this and more is explored in this comprehensive biography of a classic bluesman.

Download or read book Bluesman written by Fred Steen and published by Janus Publishing Company Lim. This book was released on 1998 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the true-to-life experiences of the author growing up on the cotton plantations in Mississippi, this is the story of a young man whose dream was to play, sing and preach the blues.

Download or read book Hand Me My Travelin Shoes written by Michael Gray and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of a blind man who made light of his disability, who exploded every stereotype about blues musicians.

Download or read book The Blues Man written by Melvyn "Deacon" Jones and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2008 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Blues Bibliography written by Robert Ford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-24 with total page 994 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a sequel to Robert Ford's comprehensive reference work A Blues Bibliography, the second edition of which was published in 2007. Bringing Ford's bibliography of resources up to date, this volume covers works published since 2005, complementing the first volume by extending coverage through twelve years of new publications. As in the previous volume, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations, and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. With extensive listings of print and online articles in scholarly and trade journals, books, and recordings, this bibliography offers the most thorough resource for all researchers studying the blues.

Download or read book Lil Choo Choo Johnson Bluesman written by Bryan Krull and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earl "Lil' Choo-Choo" Johnson le home at the age of 10, with only his father's guitar, and stepped into the world of the Delta blues. A guitar prodigy, his music led him to play with blues legends like Robert Johnson, Charley Pa on, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters. Lil' Choo-Choo's story is a history of the blues, from sharecropper's shacks on Dockery's Planta on and whiskey-soaked juke joints in Depression-era Mississippi to the swinging clubs of post-war Memphis and Chicago. It encompasses the heyday of Delta blues, the birth of rock and roll, the Bri sh invasion, the blues revival of the 1960s, and beyond. Bryan Krull has been a history teacher for the past eight years at the high school and college level. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as degrees from the University at Buffalo and the University at Albany (NY). He currently lives near Rochester, New York. Lil' Choo-Choo Johnson, Bluesman is his first novel.

Download or read book Clayton Byrd Goes Underground written by Rita Williams-Garcia and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beloved Newbery Honor winner and three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner Rita Williams-Garcia comes a powerful and heartfelt novel about loss, family, and love that will appeal to fans of Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander. Clayton feels most alive when he’s with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd, and the band of Bluesmen—he can’t wait to join them, just as soon as he has a blues song of his own. But then the unthinkable happens. Cool Papa Byrd dies, and Clayton’s mother forbids Clayton from playing the blues. And Clayton knows that’s no way to live. Armed with his grandfather’s brown porkpie hat and his harmonica, he runs away from home in search of the Bluesmen, hoping he can join them on the road. But on the journey that takes him through the New York City subways and to Washington Square Park, Clayton learns some things that surprise him. National Book Award Finalist * Kirkus Best Books of 2017 * Horn Book Best Books of 2017 * Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 * School Library Journal Best Books of 2017 * NAACP Image Awards Youth/Teens Winner * Chicago Public Library Best Books * Boston Globe Best Books of 2017 "This slim novel strikes a strong chord."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This complex tale of family and forgiveness has heart.” —School Library Journal (starred review) "Strong characterizations and vivid musical scenes add layers to this warm family story.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “An appealing, realistic story with frequent elegant turns of phrase." —The Horn Book (starred review) "Garcia-Williams skillfully finds melody in words.” —Booklist (starred review)

Download or read book Sh Boom written by Clay Cole and published by Wordclay. This book was released on 2009-10 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There was a time between Be-Bop and Hip-Hop, when a new generation of teenagers created rock 'n' roll. Cole was one of those teenagers and was host of his own Saturday night, pop music TV show. "Sh-Boom!"! is the pop-culture chronicle of that exciting time when teenagers created their own music.

Download or read book When Your Way Gets Dark written by Jeffrey Carroll and published by Parlor Press LLC. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses rhetorical and literary theory to recover the power of the blues in its cultural tradition. Describes effective strategies for teaching the blues to students.

Download or read book The Cage Keeper written by Andre Dubus III and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Passion and betrayal, violent desperation, ambivalent love that hinges on hatred, and the quest for acceptance by those who stand on the edge of society-these are the hard-hitting themes of a stunningly crafted first collection of stories by the bestselling author of House of Sand and Fog. A vigilant young man working in a halfway house finds himself unable to defend against the rage of one of the inmates in the title story. In "White Trees, Hammer Moon," a man soon to leave home for prison finds himself as unprepared for a family camping trip in the mountains of New Hampshire as he has been for most things in his life. And in the award-winning "Forky," an ex-con is haunted by the punishment he receives just as he is being released into the world. With an incisive ability to inhabit the lives of his characters, Dubus travels deep into the heart of the elusive American dream.

Download or read book Life and Legacy of B B King written by Diane Williams and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-25 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the iconic blues musician features interviews with family members, fellow musicians, and those who knew his best. Born on a cotton plantation in 1925, Riley B. King would grow up to be one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, being crowned “The King of the Blues.” Never wavering from his vocation, King gathered other musicians together and melded them into the unique blues sound that would become his signature. In this intimate portrait of B. B. King, author Diane Williams offers a brief account of the monumental blues man's life before settling in for a series of interviews with his bandmates and beloved family members. The Life and Legacy of B. B. King offers an intimate view of the man behind the music.