Music lovers in Mid-Mo are all aquiver over the arrival of this year’s Roots N Blues N BBQ festival. Check out the library’s CDs by festival headliners Al Green, Wanda Jackson or Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, and then learn more about this genre of music and some of its greatest artists by picking up one of these books.
- “A Bad Woman Feeling Good” by Buzzy Jackson traces the heritage of several women blues singers–including Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner–and discusses their contributions to music and American history.
- “Jelly Roll: A Blues” by Kevin Young isn’t about the blues–it is blues, skillfully translated into poetry. According to the publisher, Young “invents a language as shimmying and comic, as low-down and high-hearted, as the music from which he draws inspiration.”
- “Roots and Blues” by critically acclaimed children’s poet Arnold Adoff may be labeled as a children’s book, but this gorgeous work, a sensory history of the blues, will delight fans of the genre no matter their age. A beautiful and vibrant collection of paintings and poems.
- “Willie Dixon: Preacher of the Blues” by musicologist Mitsutoshi Inaba follows the career of Willie Dixon, a singer, songwriter, musician, arranger and producer who created songs for the likes of Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy.
- Got the blues yourself? Make your own music.
Find even more great reads in our catalog list, books for the blues.
