Easy Riders, Rolling Stones delves into the history of twentieth-century American popular music to explore the emergence of 'road music'. This music - blues, R'n'B and rock - took shape at pivotal moments in this history, and was made by artists and performers who were, in various ways, seekers after freedom. Whether journeying across the country, breaking free from real or imaginary confines, or in the throes of self-invention, these artists incorporated their experiences into scores of songs about travel and movement, as well as creating a new kind of road culture. Starting in the Mississippi Delta and tracking the emblematic routes and highways of road music, John Scanlan's fascinating new account explores the music and the life of movement it so often represented, identifying 'the road' as the key to an existence that was uncompromising. Scanlan explores how the image became an inspiration for musicians like Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan, and how these musicians also drew stimulus from a Beat movement that was equally enthralled with the possibilities of travel.The author goes on to relate how the quintessential American concepts of freedom and travel influenced English bands such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. These bands may have been foreigners in the us, but they also found their spiritual home there - of blues and rock'n'roll - and glimpsed the possibility of a new kind of existence, on the road.Easy Riders, Rolling Stones is an entertaining, rich account of a key strand of American music history, and will appeal to both road music fans and music scholars who want to 'head out on the highway'.

In this book we will learn the basic tools for soloing, which include scales and partial chords. We will play several 12 bar solos and analyze how they are built. Along the way you will learn all of the above techniques, but MOST importantly you will learn to create musical phrases. As the word suggests, a phrase is based on the language skills you already possess. If you think of your daily speech as a template for soloing you will bring life and vitality to your playing. *If ordering this book from Amazon there will not be a CD. Instead you can download all the audio files at: http: //learnbluesguitarnow.com/book

Singing was just one element of blues performance in the early twentieth century. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and other classic blues singers also tapped, joked, and flaunted extravagant costumes on tent show and black vaudeville stages. The press even described these women as "actresses" long before they achieved worldwide fame for their musical recordings. In "Staging the Blues," Paige A. McGinley shows that even though folklorists, record producers, and festival promoters set the theatricality of early blues aside in favor of notions of authenticity, it remained creatively vibrant throughout the twentieth century. Highlighting performances by Rainey, Smith, Lead Belly, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee in small Mississippi towns, Harlem theaters, and the industrial British North, this pioneering study foregrounds virtuoso blues artists who used the conventions of the theater, including dance, comedy, and costume, to stage black mobility, to challenge narratives of racial authenticity, and to fight for racial and economic justice.

"Black Pearls" is an anthology of black women singers who made major contributions to American music. The word anthology derives from the Greek language meaning "gathering of flowers." In this collection, Josephine Qualls has described the evolution of Jazz music and its' related musical forms as embodied in the careers of these women ranging from Bessie Smith through Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson (mother of pearls) and many others. Also included are descriptions of several early venues in which black women developed their talents. The musical art forms of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Ragtime and Dixieland highlights the descriptions of the births, early years and lifelong careers of these African/American women. Spanning the years from 1895 to the present, this is an engaging and informative book leaving the reader fascinated by the amazing variety in this "collection of flowers." "Black Pearls" belongs in the library of any fan or historian of African/American music.

Huey "Piano" Smith's musical legacy stands alongside that of fellow New Orleans legends Dr. John, Fats Domino, Ernie K-Doe, and Allen Toussaint. His 1957 classic, "Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu," made Billboard's top R&B singles chart, and hundreds of artists including Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys, Johnny Rivers, and Chubby Checker have recorded his songs.

The first biography of the artist responsible for hits "Don't You Just Know It," "High Blood Pressure," and "Sea Cruise," Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues follows the musician's extraordinary life from his Depression-era childhood to his teen years as a pianist for blues star Guitar Slim to his mainstream success in the 1950s and '60s. Drawing from extensive interviews and court records, author and journalist John Wirt also provides new insights on Smith's professional disappointments and financial struggles in the 1980s and '90s as he battled over royalties from his most successful and profitable work.

An enigmatic and guarded personality in a profession of extroverted performers, Smith made farreaching contributions to the New Orleans music scene as a songwriter, pianist, and producer. Wirt reveals that Smith's numerous collaborations with other artists -- including the Clowns, the Pitter Pats, the Hueys, and Shindig Smith and the Soul Shakers -- served as vehicles for his creative vision rather than simply as an anonymous backup for a leading front man.

Throughout this intimate account, Wirt details Smith's significant impact on rock and roll history and underscores both the longevity of his music -- which has entertained and inspired for over five decades -- and the musician's personal endurance in the face of hardship and opposition.

Deep Ellum, on the eastern edge of downtown Dallas, retains its character as an alternative to the city's staid image with loft apartments, art galleries, nightclubs, and tattoo shops. It first sprang up as a ramshackle business district with saloons and variety theatres and evolved, during the early decades of the twentieth century, into a place where the black and white worlds of Dallas converged.
This book strips away layers of myth to illuminate the cultural milieu that spawned such seminal blues and jazz musicians as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Buster Smith, and T-Bone Walker and that was also an incubator for the growth of western swing.
Expanding upon the original 1998 publication, this Texas A&M University Press edition offers new research on Deep Ellum's vital cross-fertilization of white and black musical styles, many additional rare historical photographs, and an updated account of the area in the early years of the twenty-first century.

An offbeat, strangely compelling on-the-road journal by blues singer, Carl Gustafson, who says he doesn't like music, in fact, he prefers silence. (Calling to mind keyboard immortal and eccentric Glenn Gould who he said he didn't like piano music.) Who is Carl Gustafson, you may ask? An iconoclast, a rebel, a provocateur. A flag bearer for human dignity? An Indiana Jones style adventurer, seeker of truth, justice and a better American Way? Yes, yes, certainly. An outsider artist, a Henry Darger working in obscurity on his grand vision for his oversize fabric of life, and wishing to share it? Oh, yes. And mix this in, too: one part Edward Abbey for his meticulous power of observation ("I wish that mankind, rich or poor, could at least plant a single flower or sign their signature upon their life in some distinct way. If they do, I will observe it."), one part Thoreau logging nature notes, one part Kerouac on the road, one part Dylan Thomas raging into the good night, and finally 19th century French composer Hector Berlioz writing his humorous and insightful Evenings in the Orchestra - only this time the orchestra is a blues band. Another part anthropologist Margaret Mead living among the natives, another part Zen Master with his Buddhist acceptance, reluctant or otherwise, of all things around him on any given day, he carefully observes and notates all the minutia around him on any given day, all the while keeping up a conversation with himself, sometimes bemused, sometimes angry, sometimes transcendent. The writing here is paradoxical, maddening, frustrating by turns....and then all at once riveting. You'll see yourself in these pages - that's the riveting - and then, I think you might just see the prospect of your better self, too. That's the magical. (Sample chapters, blurbs, table of contents, more at http: //sarkett.com/showtime.)

Winner ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Outstanding Book on Music
Foreword by Dr. John, Recommended by Bonnie Raitt and Joe Bonamassa
What a great resource, as fascinating as it is informative. Debra Devi s passion for the blues shines through. Bonnie Raitt

Find out what the words in your favorite blues songs "really" mean In "The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu," rock musician and "Huffington Post" blogger Debra Devi defines over 150 blues terms like mojo, hoodoo, buffet flat and killing floor with wild stories and fresh insights from her interviews with such blues stars as Hubert Sumlin, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Henry Gray, Little Milton Campbell, Bob Margolin, Jody Williams, Robben Ford, Jimmie Vaughan and more. As a musician myself, Devi explains, I thought I could make a contribution by talking to blues legends about what the words in these songs mean to them.

"The Language of the Blues" includes over 30 photos (17 color) and a remarkable foreword by Dr. John, who helped Devi uncover the illegal gambling origins of terms like gig and axe. Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Outstanding Book on Music, "The Language of the Blues" has earned praise from Bonnie Raitt, Joe Bonamassa, former Muddy Waters guitarist Bob Margolin, producer Hal Willner and even Ministry singer Al Jourgensen Joe Bonamassa says, Devi's book will teach you what you really need to know about blues history and where the blues are coming from. Al Jourgensen notes: Finally one can understand the mechanics behind the overwhelming viscera of the Blues. Debra Devi's work is a true guide book to the soul.

Devi combines her interviews with in-depth research into etymology, African language, voodoo and the origins of blues, rock and jazz. The result is a lively read "Reuters" calls one of the wittiest, bawdiest, most fascinating dictionaries ever. "Blues Revue" deems "The Language of the Blues" an essential purchase for scholars and fans and "New York Times" columnist Shelton Ivany adds, If you have any questions about blues songs, lyrics, musicians or events, chances are you will find your answers in this unparalleled publication. Don't think that "The Language of the Blues" might read like a dictionary or reference book, explains Bob Margolin. There's no plot, but you can open it at random and fall into the world of your favorite blues songs, finding out more about the lyrics than you would by guessing from context. I learned a lot more about the blues music I love.

Devi is an "American Blues Scene" columnist and former "Blues Revue" associate editor. She is the lead singer/guitarist for the rock band DEVI and a Fender Girl Rock Nation artist. Visit her at www.devi-rock.com.

This book is fascinating Take it to the bathroom and don't come out until you're done reading it. - Jimmy Vivino

This is a beautiful book. After hearing 'Hellhound on My Trail' in high school I bought every vintage blues record available at the time. Upon receiving "The Language of the Blues" I discovered my knowledge only scratched the surface. Debra Devi has written an invaluable reference book. And it's also great fun to read. - Hal Willner

Congratulations to Debra Devi for "The Language of the Blues." Its candor and witty honesty bring us into the world she describes so well with beautiful strength. This is a book that lovers of music and just plain old lovers will love to have in their collections. - Ed Sanders

By melding a bourbon distillery of today with a famous blues musician, Hans tells the history of bourbon and the artistry of the blues in an entertaining manner never before seen in print. This is a book that bourbon enthusiasts as well as blues fans will certainly enjoy. After reading the first page it will be difficult for a reader to lay the book down before the last word has been absorbed.

A remarkable blend of history and drama seen through the eyes of a noted New Orleans bluesman. This extraordinary life history is the result of more than 15 years of recorded conversations, pieced together into a narrative of a uniquely American experience. Joseph's colorful portrayals of the characters who parade through his life document more than 70 years of changing relationships between blacks and whites. In his own words, he describes growing up in Louisiana, working a rice plantation, and how Gospel music put him on a career path. His candid remarks underscore the economic necessity prevalent in a musician's life. Within the tales of gigs, card games, and romantic exploits are intimate glimpses of legendary figures, including Billie Holiday and Muddy Waters. His descriptions of performing in New Orleans, New York, and Europe are especially revealing, filled with life experiences as rich as the rhythm and lyrics of the blues he played .

In this extraordinary reconstruction of the origins of the blues, historian Marybeth Hamilton demonstrates that the story as we know it is largely a myth. Following the trail of characters like Howard Odum, who combed Mississippi's back roads with a cylinder phonograph to record vagrants, John and Alan Lomax, who prowled Southern penitentiaries and unearthed the rough, melancholy vocals of Leadbelly, and James McKune, a recluse whose record collection came to define the primal sounds of the Delta blues, Hamilton reveals this musical form to be the culmination of a longstanding white fascination with the exotic mysteries of black music.

By excavating the history of the Delta blues, Hamilton reveals the extent to which American culture has been shaped by white fantasies of racial difference.