Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey to Music's Heart & Soul

This book is more than just a book about the Blues. It's also a very comprehensive, well documented, well illustrated "history", of Slavery (Not only in the U.S.A.,but also in Africa itself, in England, the West Indies, & in Brazil). It also covers some general American history, history of the Southern U.S.A., The Confederacy, the American Civil War, and how all of this ties into the creation of the genre of American Music known as the "Blues". Bill Wyman has certainly done a great job in creating this book. To me, it is the "Ultimate" reference guide to the Blues. I can relate to a lot of this, because, I was born & raised in the Mississippi Delta, on the Louisiana side, on an 80 acre farm.The picture on the cover says a lot. Its a picture of a truck traveling down highway 49, through the Mississippi Delta. Highway 49 intersects with highway 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi,(Which is the Famous Crossroads in Blues Folklore). The Mississippi Delta became the birthplace for the "Delta Blues". In Clarksdale, there is a museam of Delta Blues.The history in this book starts off around sometime during the later 1600's. According to this book the history of slavery, began in West Africa itself. In Western Africa, Africans would capture and enslave other Africans. When England began trading with these Western African Nations. The Western African Nations offered slaves in return for clothes, and other goods from England & America. So, the international slave trade began. Primarily, England would send a slave ship to western Africa, exchange goods for slaves, then ship the slaves to the Southern U.S.A., or to Brazil, or the West Indies and sell them, then buy cotton, sugar, and etc., and return to England. That was the basic cycle of the Slave Trade.Anyway, the book progresses on through the American Civil War, reconstruction, and the share cropper system of the plantation system. Its a system where the descendants of former slaves and poor whites, worked the plantations in return for a share of the profit from the crops they raised. They usually lived in small "shack" type houses on the plantation. Anyway, this is the environment where the Delta Blues was created. This was sometimes around the 1920's or so. Charlie Patton became the 1st King of the Delta Blues, around this time. Then, this book progresses on and covers the other great Delta Blues artists, such as Son House, Robert Johnson, and many, many others.Around the 1940's these southern plantations became so mechanized, that they no longer needed all the labor that the share-croppers provided. So, without jobs a lot of the share-croppers migrated North to cities like Memphis, St.Louis, and especially Chicago.This book covers the history, up through publication time, of the Famous Stovall Plantation. This is the plantation where Muddy Waters grew up in, and worked at, before migrating to Chicago.The book goes on to cover the Blues, throughout the Southern U.S.A. It covers 100's of blues musicians. It even covers how the blues influenced more modern Southern Rock Bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and other artists, such as Bonnie Raitt. And, it covers how the blues influenced the Rolling Stones & other British bands.Bill Wyman even has a "soundtrack" listing for his "Blues Odessey". It includes a list and pictures of albums that he singled out in his blues journey. It starts with some of the early 1920's blues artists and ends with Stevie Ray Vaughan's album "Texas Flood".To me, this is my favorite blues book, but that's my opinion. I do think that anyone who is interested in the blues, and its history, would enjoy this book very much, so in that context, I do highly recommend it. Thanks!!!!

You'll like this book if you love the blues and want to learn where it came from and by whom. Bill Wyman has an encyclopediac knowledge of the subject although I doubt he actually wrote the book. But, no matter. This is a good book for learning and a good book for reference.

I don't know if this book is still in print,but I think you can't read a better book on the history of the blues.Great graphics and contents,pictures and social events,I know my stuff but I,m learning a lot more.I watched the movie in probably in 2002 or so on Pbs.I'm glad I got to shake Bill Wyman hand at a Rhythm Kings show in Chicago.And I'm glad I got to see some of these greats in person while they were alive!

Abundant with pics and maps, data, short bios, some discography. I'd recommend this to anyone who wanted an overview of recorded Blues history, mostly Delta Blues history, and up into Chicago Blues history.Though Bill Wyman admittedly was kind of a late comer to the blues compared to his Rolling Stones bandmates, he makes up for it with this chronicle. The history of how the blues made its way into the London scene is a little goofy really; it was a matter of fadism and record collecting, adopting downtrodden personas and copying vocal and guitar licks note for note. But most of us who grew up on the Stones were glad they did. Wyman tracks this British Blues development as well and includes chapters on a few other well known mostly white US practioners.All in all, it's a visually solid and very readable piece, I'm very glad to have it for its chronological look at blues evolution. Rabid fans might miss the fact that some areas other than the Delta are overlooked but, again, this is a very worthy introduction.

Well researched with interesting stories about the history of the roots and progression of the blues. A great addition to any collection.

Bill Wyman's top shelf offering is an encyclopedia of blues history - the artwork, layout, typesetting and printing makes this book a must have for any blues book collection.

If you want to know why Black Lives Matter....read this!

An incredable amount of great music history!! Kudos to Mr wyman for giving us this gift! I absolutely love it!

Good quality publication. The perfect coffee table book for blues lovers.

Saw this book in a guest house we stayed in and was determined to get a copy. Slight pity we had to go to a US outlet for a decent price, but they cam up with the goods - it arrived fairly quickly and in good nic!

History abounds here. If your not into the blues, it is still a great resource book and very smart coffee table reading