The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

"The Blues" traces the roots of this indigenous American music from its origins in the South through its great popularity throughout the U.S. and around the world. Includes an A-Z directory of blues musicians, photos on nearly every page, and a four-page timeline, covering 1912 to 1992.

Arts & Photography

RUSSELL, Tony

Music

Schirmer Reference

Schirmer Trade Books

A one-of-a-kind new guide to recorded blues This informative, insightful, and easy-to-use A-Z guide surveys the recorded work of more than a thousand blues artists. From towering figures of the past like Charley Patton, Bessie Smith, and Robert Johnson to stars of the modern era such as B. B. King, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, this valuable resource provides crisp, expert, and witty reviews of almost six thousand recordings and is required reading for blues aficionados as well as anyone just starting a collection.

The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings

Biographies & Memoirs

Smith, Chris

Arts & Literature

Penguin??Books

There are many biographies and histories of early country music and its creators, but surprisingly little attention has been given to the actual songs at the heart of these narratives. In this groundbreaking book, music historian Tony Russell turns the spotlight on seventy-eight original 78rpm discs of songs and tunes from the 1920s and 1930s, uncovering the hidden stories of how they came to be recorded, the musicians who sang and played them, the record companies that marketed them, and the listeners who absorbed them. In these essays, based upon new research, contemporary newspaper accounts, and previously unpublished interviews, and copiously illustrated with rare images, readers will find songs about home and family, love and courtship, crime and punishment, farms and floods, chain gangs and chain stores, journeys and memories, and many other aspects of life in the period. Rural Rhythm not only charts the tempos and styles of rural and small-town music-making and the origins of present-day country music, but also traces the larger rhythms of life in the American South, Southwest, and Midwest. What emerges is a narrative that ingeniously blends the musical and social history of the era.

Rural Rhythm: The Story of Old-Time Country Music in 78 Records

Oxford University Press

Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942

More than twenty years in the making, Country Music Records documents all country music recording sessions from 1921 through 1942. With primary research based on files and session logs from record companies, interviews with surviving musicians, as well as the 200,000 recordings archived at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Frist Library and Archives, this notable work is the first compendium to accurately report the key details behind all the recording sessions of country music during the pre-World War II era. This discography documents--in alphabetical order by artist--every commercial country music recording, including unreleased sides, and indicates, as completely as possible, the musicians playing at every session, as well as instrumentation. This massive undertaking encompasses 2,500 artists, 5,000 session musicians, and 10,000 songs. Summary histories of each key record company are also provided, along with a bibliography. The discography includes indexes to all song titles and musicians listed.

Pinson, Bob

Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost

In this sparkling collection, "roots" music authority Tony Russell offers vivid portraits of the men and women who created country music, the artists whose lives and songs formed the rich tradition from which Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, The Dixie Chicks, and so many others have drawn their inspiration. Included here are not only such major figures as Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Fiddlin' John Carson, Charlie Poole, and Gene Autry, who put country music on America's cultural map in the 1920s and '30s, but many fascinating lesser-known figures as well, such as Carson Robison, Otto Gray, Chris Bouchillon, Emry Arthur and dozens more, many of whose stories are told here for the first time. To map some of the winding, untraveled roads that connect today's music to its ancestors, Russell draws upon new research and rare source material, such as contemporary newspaper reports and magazine articles, internet genealogy sites, and his own interviews with the musicians or their families. The result is a lively mix of colorful tales and anecdotes, priceless contemporary accounts of performances, illuminating social and historical context, and well-grounded critical judgment. The essays are enhanced by more than 200 illustrations, many of them seldom seen and some never before published, including artist photographs, record labels, song sheets, newspaper clippings, cartoons, advertisements, and magazine covers, recreating the look and feel of the entire culture of country music. Each essay includes as well a playlist of recommended and currently available recordings for each artist. Country Music Originals is a collection of gems which will delight the aficionado and first-time enthusiast as well as the scholar of American folk music.

Graced by more than 200 illustrations, many of them seldom seen and some never before published, this sparkling volume offers vivid portraits of the men and women who created country music, the artists whose lives and songs formed the rich tradition from which so many others have drawn inspiration. Included here are not only such major figures as Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Fiddlin' John Carson, Charlie Poole, and Gene Autry, who put country music on America's cultural map, but many fascinating lesser-known figures as well, such as Carson Robison, Otto Gray, Chris Bouchillon, Emry Arthur and dozens more, many of whose stories are told here for the first time. To map some of the winding, untraveled roads that connect today's music to its ancestors, Tony Russell draws upon new research and rare source material, such as contemporary newspaper reports and magazine articles, internet genealogy sites, and his own interviews with the musicians or their families. The result is a lively mix of colorful tales and anecdotes, priceless contemporary accounts of performances, illuminating social and historical context, and well-grounded critical judgment. The illustrations include artist photographs, record labels, song sheets, newspaper clippings, cartoons, and magazine covers, recreating the look and feel of the entire culture of country music. Each essay includes as well a playlist of recommended and currently available recordings for each artist. Finally, the paperback edition now features an extensive index.

Tony Russell's Blacks, Whites And Blues  breaks new ground in an area that most jazz and blues writers have preferred to ignore; several aspects of his subject would've benefitted from being treated in greater detail and others have been neglected, though there is mention of a further volume in preparation that may well expand some of the points that are only touched upon briefly here. Many jazz/blues followers in fact show considerable antipathy to white country music partly on musical grounds and partly because of its sometimes abhorrent social content, but Mr Russell convincingly details the considerable amount of interaction that has taken place within the black and white folk idioms.

Blacks, whites and blues (Blue's paperbacks)

Studio Vista

Yonder Come the Blues: The Evolution of a Genre

This book combines three influential and much-quoted books Savannah Syncopators; Blacks, Whites and Blues and Recording the Blues, updated with additional new essays, which collectively confront the problem of how, when and from where the blues emerged and developed. It emphasizes the significance of the African heritage, the mutuality of much white and black music and the role of recording in consolidating the blues. Redressing some of the misconceptions that persist in writing on African-American music, it will be essential reading for all enthusiasts of blues, jazz and country music.

OLIVER, Paul

Rye, Howard

Dixon, Robert M. W.

Godrich, John

Cambridge University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by RUSSELL, Tony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by RUSSELL, Tony

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by RUSSELL, Tony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings

Rural Rhythm: The Story of Old-Time Country Music in 78 Records

Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942

Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost

Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942

Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost

Blacks, whites and blues (Blue's paperbacks)

Yonder Come the Blues: The Evolution of a Genre