Customer Reviews:
A Fascinating Account .......2007-04-19
This book is a fascinating account of the life of a musician and songwriter whose importance and influence on American music is only beginning to be felt. I was immediately struck by the fluidity and color in Kruth's writing. He has a distinctive voice which, while informal at times, is perfect for a biography of Townes, who never dwelled on formalities. As for chronology, I suspect that many of the people Kruth interviewed could not remember which year certain events occurred, let let alone perfectly accurate details, which aren't necessary anyway. Kruth gives us something far more valuable than a timeline, he provides the reader with a feel for the poetic craziness of Townes' life. He relies on interviews with those who really knew Townes. His friends, family and fellow musicians speak for themselves, the author doesn't get in the way with the arbitrary editorializing and artificial structure that so many more traditional biographers feel obliged to provide. Finally, Kruth avoids the cliche of Townes as just another misunderstood and drug-addicted artist who pleads for our sympathy (a major problem with Margaret Brown's recent documentary). While Townes' problems are evident, so is his wit, intelligence, humor and charisma, all qualities which contributed to his art and were obvious to anyone who ever met the man, even in the last year of his life.
Couldn't have been better.......2007-04-17
I think most of the other reviewers expected to read an in depth look into the sould of Townes Van Zandt. What you need to understand is that even the people closest to Townes didn't truly KNOW him. He was a complicated man and a mysterious man, that is half of the allure. I think Kruth did a great job, it is very fitting that the book is full of anecdotes and tales from Townes' peers and family, that seems to be all that we have. We got as close as we could to knowing Van Zandt without destroying the mystery behind the man. Overall this was a great read. I couldn't put the book down. Any other biographer would have simply dwelled on Townes' alcohol and drug abuse, Kruth stayed as far away from that as possible, none of the stories or insights were condemning, maybe that is what you all wanted???
I don't know where to start...........2007-04-16
I wrote this out of a sense of duty to fans of music and readers of biographies. If you are a fan of Townes VanZandt, or if you like to read good writing, go put on an album, and read something other than this mess. Although I enjoy VanZandt's music I knew little of his life other than he was an alcoholic, so I was delighted to finally see a "biography"; what this is is a collection of anecdotes hung on the names of people who knew VanZandt. As a previous reviewer wrote, chronology is a joke, Guy Clark is given short shrift (the chapter on the author's meeting with Clark is jarringly incongruous to the rest of the text and may give insight into why this is so; they seem to have not hit it off well), and insight and understanding are nowhere in sight. It's got nothing to do with "New York attitude" or "Yankee journalist"; it's about lousy writing. This is a stinker, to be avoided. "Barely coherent as a writer" (says reviewer W.E. Black, who is spot on in his review); exactly so. This is the most poorly written biography I've ever read. One star because the subject is Townes VanZandt. Otherwise unreadable.
A terrible mess.......2007-04-11
After waiting years for a biography of the great songwriter Townes Van Zandt, I read this book with eager anticipation, and I was sorely disappointed. Then I read it again, and I got angry. Townes Van Zandt deserves so much better than this. The author, a self-proclaimed (and seemingly proud of it) "yankee journalist," seems much more interested in himself than in his supposed subject. It's telling that some of the most important people in Van Zandt's life apparently refused to be interviewed for this book. A reader might think that Townes' third ex-wife, who is quoted extensively and who the author seems oddly deferential to, was present from nativity to crucifixion here and had a hand in everything. Whereas Guy Clark is touted as an important figure in Van Zandt's life, as he surely was, the author spends his time writing about his own meeting with Clark, with nothing that illuminates Clark's part in Townes' story. While he is barely coherent as a writer (did anyone edit this mess?), he is clearly much worse as a researcher. The book reads like a bad high-school term paper written the night before it was due. The author writes with a juvenile smugness about his own favorite music, which seems to be connected to Van Zandt's music only in his own head. He seems to have absolutely no understanding of or feeling for (or even interest in) Texas music. His "analyses" of Van Zandt's songs are laughably weak. He writes about how "I" did this, or "I" did that, nearly as much as he writes about Townes. There are occasional brief attempts at chronology (what a concept!), but they fall apart within a page or two every time, with the narrative jumping from one decade to another, one subject to another, almost at random. There is a lame, general bibliography included (like in a bad high-school term paper written the night before it was due!), but none of the many quotes in the text are specifically attributed, leaving nothing but massive confusion about who said what when, in what context, and no attempt to distinguish between the many fictional tall tales of Van Zandt's life and the facts. This is not a biography. We turn to a biography for facts, for insight, not for a subjective, jumbled mess that might give us a "feeling" for someone's life. I hope this yankee is a good mandolin player (he thinks he is, of course). A writer he's not. This book is a mess.
The definitive account of the beautiful mess that was Van Zandt, thus-far.......2007-04-09
Take it or leave it, John Kruth's "To Live's to Fly" is, to this date, the definitive take on the turbulent life of Townes Van Zandt, the greatest songwriter who ever lived.
Kruth is no Chet Flippo, Charles Cross or Nick Tosches, and although he does approach Van Zandt with enthusiasm, a great deal of the book is given to his overly flowery critiques of some of Van Zandt's songs and his depictions of people, especially the curmudgeonly Guy Clark is amusing. Clark's take on Kruth "a little Yankee journalist" seems to be fitting of the author, as he does give a great deal of detail to the meetings he's arranged between he and the interviewees and approaches them with something of a distance (one can sense that his logic has been skewed from living in New York for too long!) This would be a better book if Kruth spent more time actually telling the story of Van Zandt's life and less time on his own travels in search of info on Townes.
Perhaps Kruth should have spent more time around Texas and learned more about Van Zandt's music and this would have come out a lot better; overall, it is a good take on the life of Van Zandt, but I think a better biography has yet to come out.
Book Description
In Lockhart, Texas, a rural working-class town just south of Austin, country music is a way of life. Conversation slips easily into song, and the songs are full of conversation. Anthropologist and musician Aaron A. Fox spent years in Lockhart making research notes, music, and friends. In Real Country, he provides an intimate, in-depth ethnography of the community and its music. Showing that country music is deeply embedded in the textures of working-class life, Fox argues that it is the cultural and intellectual property of working-class people and not only of the Nashville-based music industry or the stars whose lives figure so prominently in popular and scholarly writing about the genre.
Fox spent hundreds of hours observing, recording, and participating in talk and music-making in homes, beer joints, and garage jam sessions. He renders the everyday life of Lockhart’s working-class community in detail, right down to the ice cold beer, the battered guitars, and the technical skills of such local musical legends as Randy Meyer and Larry âHoppyâ Hopkins. Throughout, Fox focuses on the human voice. His analyses of conversations, interviews, songs, and vocal techniques show how feeling and experience are expressed, and how local understandings of place, memory, musical aesthetics, working-class social history, race, and gender are shared. In Real Country, working-class Texans re-imagine their past and give voice to the struggles and satisfactions of their lives in the present through music.
Customer Reviews:
Buy this book!.......2006-11-02
If you read one book about country music, this is the one you should read. Fox's brilliant analysis sidesteps the whole Nashville-Dollywood-Branson commericial thing to explore how working class people in rural Texas and Illinois use country music to express their senses of self and their aesthetic and cultural values. The way he writes about the singing voice and the way he incorporates the character of the people he studied with into his presentation is about the best I've seen. Why only four stars, you ask? Well.....It can get a little dense sometimes - he has a theoretical point to make about music and culture, and he is after all a scholar (teaches in the music department at Columbia University). But bear with that and you'll be very happy you did. If you love country music, read this book.
Book Description
Praise for Johnny Bush and
Whiskey River (Take My Mind):
"Johnny Bush and I started out together... The story contained in this book is gospel."
—Charley Pride
"From the crown of his western hat down to the tips of his needle-nosed James Leddy cowboy boots, Johnny Bush is pure-D Texas from the get-go. His telling reads like a honky-tonk song, only real; you can hear the hurtin', heartache, cheatin', and pain in every word and feel the boot-scootin' shuffle with every turn of the page."
—Joe Nick Patoski, author of
Selena: Como La Flor and
Stevie Ray Vaughn: Caught in the Crossfire and writer for
Rolling Stone and
No Depression
"Through his talents Johnny Bush has made a significant contribution to country music, and has given to his many fans the joy of magnificent music. You will enjoy meeting this creative man through this book."
—Ralph Emery
"I am as proud of Johnny Bush as I am of Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, and Johnny Paycheck—all Cherokee Cowboys alumni. I am especially proud of his triumph over his debilitating voice problem. This is the real story, told in his own voice."
—Ray Price
"From hard-time hungry Houston childhood to Nashville hit-making, from scuffling honky-tonk sideman to king of the Texas dancehalls, from victim of a strange career-killing illness to comeback kid, Johnny Bush has a Texas-sized story to tell about his life and times in country music. He tells it honestly, with humor and humility. Listen up when he speaks."
—John Morthland, contributing editor,
Texas Monthly, and former associate editor of
Rolling Stone,
Creem, and
Country Music
"Johnny Bush is one of my oldest and dearest friends. He and I started out together in music, and we're still together. Everything that's been said about me in this book, good or bad, is pretty accurate."
—Willie Nelson
"I love Johnny Bush. He is classic Texas honky-tonk, one of our state's treasures. Every honky-tonker out there has tried to sing like him, myself included. Thanks, Johnny, for being a true Texas original, and for your friendship."
—George Strait
When it comes to Texas honky-tonk, nobody knows the music or the scene better than Johnny Bush. Author of Willie Nelson's classic concert anthem "Whiskey River," and singer of hits such as "You Gave Me a Mountain," "Undo the Right," "Jim, Jack and Rose," and "I'll Be There," Johnny Bush is a legend in country music, a singer-songwriter who has lived the cheatin', hurtin', hard-drinkin' life and recorded some of the most heart-wrenching songs about it. He has one of the purest honky-tonk voices ever to come out of Texas. And Bush's career has been just as dramatic as his songs—on the verge of achieving superstardom in the early 1970s, he was sidelined by a rare vocal disorder that he combated for thirty years. But, survivor that he is, Bush is once again filling dance halls across Texas and inspiring a new generation of musicians who crave the authenticity—the "pure D" country—that Johnny Bush has always had and that Nashville country music has lost.
In
Whiskey River (Take My Mind), Johnny Bush tells the twin stories of his life and of Texas honky-tonk music. He recalls growing up poor in Houston's Kashmere Gardens neighborhood and learning his chops in honky-tonks around Houston and San Antonio—places where chicken wire protected the bandstand and deadly fights broke out regularly. Bush vividly describes life on the road in the 1960s as a band member for Ray Price and Willie Nelson, including the booze, drugs, and one-night stands that fueled his songs but destroyed his first three marriages. He remembers the time in the early 1970s when he was hotter than Willie and on the fast track to superstardom—until spasmodic dysphonia forced his career into the slow lane. Bush describes his agonizing, but ultimately successful struggle to keep performing and rebuild his fan base, as well as the hard-won happiness he has found in his personal life.
Woven throughout Bush's autobiography is the never-before-told story of Texas honky-tonk music, from Bob Wills and Floyd Tillman to Junior Brown and Pat Green. Johnny Bush has known almost all the great musicians, past and present, and he has wonderful stories to tell. Likewise, he offers shrewd observations on how the music business has changed since he started performing in the 1950s—and pulls no punches in saying how Nashville music has lost its country soul. For everyone who loves genuine country music, Johnny Bush, Willie Nelson, and stories of triumph against all odds,
Whiskey River (Take My Mind) is a must-read.
Customer Reviews:
Country Music Veteran .......2007-03-29
Not everybody can be Garth Brooks, and thank the Good Lord for that. Johnny Bush is the real deal in country music, he's been laying down good music for years both as a songwriter and singer, primarily on that Texas circuit where the fans demand high quality and will go to the wall for you if they love you. But you have to earn that respect and Bush did. He cut his teeth playing in small time Texas bands like that led by uncle, minor honky tonk legend Jerry Jericho. He then moved up to Ray Price's glorious Cherokee Cowboys. Frustrated in Nashville, he headed back to Texas and built a career based around strong songwriting (he wrote Whiskey River, made famous by Willie Nelson) and solid performance. He tells most in this open, honest autobiography. The text is engagingly written and the stories well told. There is no better insider look at the world of honky tonk music.
Customer Reviews:
The Inner Workings of the Van Cliburn Competition.......2007-04-03
An excellent read as well as a Van Cliburn competition retrospective with focus on the 1989 competition [note the book copyright of 1990, hence the 8th was the 'latest' competition]. This is an excellent souce book on the Van Cliburn competition and while I myself enjoy playing classical piano although hardly on the Van Cliburn competition level nor even the latest Van Cliburn 'Outstanding Amateurs' [tm] competitions [these 'amateurs' are truly outstanding!] , like many classical piano enthusiasts, I'm drawn to the competitions and, of course, the mixed bag competitors themselves.
This book by Mr. Joseph Horowitz is an on the spot 'I was there in 1989' kind of narrative with ample doses of reality ... versus hype. Or any sugar coating for that matter! Mr. Horowitz rarely backs away from speaking his mind and so the 'down-side' of classical piano competitions and its criticisms in general receives his reflections and general ponderings.
I would also highly recommend to the reader the 8th Van Cliburn competition DVD which is the perfect adjunct to the book and its focus on the 8th and its personalities. As is known, the winner of the 8th Van Cliburn piano competition in 1989, Alexei Sultanov, was only 19 when he won the competition to the rather puzzling chagrin of Gyorgy Sandor who considered Sultanov's win as a "tremendous scandal" [sic], the why of which totally escapes me as I felt Sultanov well "earned" his win with his age being secondary to his outstanding multiple performances in all phases of the competition yet there is Mr. Sandor looking like he was literally biting on lemons when the name 'Alexei Sultanov' was announced as the gold medal winner. Unfortunately, a brilliant career was cut short by the tragic death of Alexei Sultanov at age 35 [in 2005 and the same year of Mr. Sandor's passing who was in his 90's]. Between the book and the separately available competition DVD, the inner workings of the Van Cliburn piano competition and its 'players', behind the keys or behind the scenes, as it were, becomes most revealing. In print media via Mr. Joseph Horowitz and his nitty-gritty perceptions and in the filmed DVD rendition via Peter Rosen Productions.
In passing, if classical piano and hence classical piano international competitions are your thing, you may also like the book by Wendy Thompson with Dame Fanny Waterman about the UK's answer to the USA Van Cliburn, the equally highly respected Leeds international piano competition. That book is also available at Amazon or various Amazon vendors entitled "Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds."
Doc Tony
Average customer rating:
- Fun, Thoughtful, and Historical
- A heady trot thru the era of great fun loving Texans
|
Confessions of a Maddog: A Romp Through the High-Flying Texas Music and Literary Era of the Fifties to the Seventies
Jay Dunston Milner
Manufacturer: University of North Texas Press
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Book Description
Maddog Inc. was a loose confederation of Texas writers and "picker poets," as Jay Milner calls them, whose heydey lasted from the late 1950s to about the mid-'70s. This self-conscious gaggle of merrymakers (the group even had an official Maddog membership card) frequently got together to party through the nights and days.
The merry pranksters he fell in with included the likes of Billy Lee Brammer, Bud Shrake, Gary Cartwright, Dan Jenkins, Larry L. King, Pete Gent and (to an extent, though only peripherally, it appears) Larry McMurtry. The singers and songwriters were Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver and others.
I highly recommend Confessions of a Maddog, especially for those such as myself who are a bit younger than the author's generation of Texas writers but have heard tell of their legendary exploits. The Dallas Morning News, Tom Pilkington, January 3, 1999.
In the 1960's and '70s, a number of Texas writers began emerging as significant comers on the literary landscape. They were, for the most part, a rambunctious and talented lot who worked hard and played harder, and before they got too old to socialize till sunrise--among them, Larry L. King, Dan Jenkins, Bud Shrake, Gary Cartwright and Billie Lee Brammer--they left an indelible imprint on the world of letters in Texas and beyond. They and some of their friends called themselves Maddog Inc.--a label that, given the culture of the times, seemed entirely fitting to their unequivocal disregard for restraint.
Fort Worth resident, Jay Milner, a native of West Texas, was one of the Maddogs. A former reporter and writer for the esteemed New York Herald Tribune, he published a well-regarded novel, Incident at Ashton, before returning to Texas in 1961 to teach journalism, including duty at TCU and SMU. In Milner's new book, Confessions of a Maddog, published by the University of North Texas Press, Milner recounts the lives, loves and losses of his good friends and fellow writers. From Editor's Note preceding four page excerpt in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 15, 1998.
A writer is someone who puts his thoughts into words. Jay Milner has a way of putting everyone's thoughts into words. He knows where he is, therefore, he is able to position everything around him in relation to himself, which seems to be a good spot. His insight into the mental stumblings of an entertainer are uncanny. Maybe it's because he is also an entertainer. In other words and on the other hand and in addition to it all, out of a possible ten, Jay Milner is a twelve.--Willie Nelson
"When I first met Jay Milner, dinosaurs and the one-and-only original Hank Williams were a long time dead; John F. Kennedy and William Faulkner only recently so. Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Jackie Gleason, Red Foley, Chet Huntley and a rowdy bunch of hard-drinking, pot-smoking, lady-chasing Texas writers--many of whom make appearances in this book--were alive and semi-well. So were our dreams--collectively and individually--of soon running Norman Mailer out of town, embarrassing Kurt Vonnegut into retirement and reducing Saul Bellow to full-time school teaching. It didn't exactly happen that way, but my-oh-my didn't we have a good time trying?" Larry L. King.
Customer Reviews:
Fun, Thoughtful, and Historical.......2001-04-01
I had a fun time reading this book by Jay Milner. It's a really great chronicle of the exploits of a renegade group of Texas writers, musicians, artists, and politicos, as well a chronicle of Milner's own life as a novelist, university professor, and journalist.
Much of the fun in this book takes place in the mid 60s through mid 70s Texas, when Milner's running buddies include folks such as writers Gary Cartwright, Billie Lee Brammer, Larry L. King, and Edwin Shrake, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, Dallas Cowboy wide receiver turned novelist Peter Gent, and country music legends Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Kris Kristofferson.
Since this book is also autobiographical, it would be easy for Milner to embellish the high points of his life, and choose the frames from his internal "home movie" that would be in the book. Yet Milner does no such thing. He describes his life, and the activities surrounding it, with the objectivity of a trained "old school" journalist--either in the middle of a 60s or 70s scene involving sex, drugs, and country rock and roll--or in his honest and thoughtful analysis of what he considered his own inner demons.
Jay Milner's book is more than just a fun read. It is also a reliable history of a modern, creative period when artistic endeavors coming out of Texas began to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.
"Confessions of a Maddog" is an important work in this regard. I predict that it will be required reading in any college course involving the literature of the southwest for years to come.
Lee Leatherwood Austin, TX 31 March 01
A heady trot thru the era of great fun loving Texans.......1998-12-14
Milner has exceeded himself with this book. His compassionate record of the exploits and traumas of several of his friends as they hone their writing skills is superb. I refer you to page 222 for the most touching prose regarding one's journey up to and into the abyss of the dark night of one's soul. Billy Lee chose to go into the abyss and stay. Obviously Milner chose to take theever so rickety ladder out. His book is testimony to that choice.
Book Description
"Singer-songwriters have always been the long-suffering, little-celebrated spiritual stepchildren of the bigger, more commercial country music stars. As Barry Antelope says, they write the songs. Not only that, they usually perform the songs better than anyone else. This should not be terribly surprising. The songs, after all, have been created by hand and heart from the ragged-but-righteous, weather-beaten fabric of the singer-songwriter's soul.
Needless to say, these kinds of critters are often lonesome, ornery, and mean, not to mention almost impossible to confront or to capture. It is no small achievement that Steve Harris was able to corral so many of them into this book."
—Kinky Friedman, from the foreword
Whether they headline major music festivals or play in small, nearly empty clubs, singer-songwriters are among Texas's most authentic and enduring musicians. Steve Harris has been photographing these artists for many years, creating an unsurpassed photo gallery of both well-known and emerging Texas singer-songwriters. In
Texas Troubadours, he showcases over fifty songwriters with evocative black-and-white photographs accompanied by original quotes in the musicians' own handwriting, which allow viewers to engage with the musicians both visually and personally.
Texas Troubadours is a virtual who's who of singer-songwriters. The book includes such nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians as Kris Kristofferson, Alejandro Escovedo, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, along with singer-songwriters whose followings are growing. In his introduction, Steve Harris describes how the losses of Townes Van Zandt and Doug Sahm inspired him to document Texas singer-songwriters and how the book developed as he took his 4 x 5 camera and notebook wherever a singer-songwriter was willing to be photographed.
The portraits in
Texas Troubadours are as genuine and soulful as the musicians themselves. When you look into these faces, you see lives that, as Kinky Friedman says, have known "the road, the cheap motels, the beer joints and half-filled houses, the days when our autographs were bouncing, the long nights of pain and beauty beyond words and music."
Customer Reviews:
GOOD IDEA--BUT!!.......2007-05-03
THE THINKING BEHIND THIS BOOK IS GOOD,PAGES OF PHOTOS OF TEXAS SINGER SONGWRITERS-OPPOSITE PAGE HAS A HAND WRITTEN COMMENT BY THE SINGER.GOOD IDEA.SOME OF IT WORKS VERY WELL, BUT MANY ARE WRITTEN OVER A BLACK BACKGROUND MAKING IT VERY DIFFICULT TO READ, WHOEVER APPROVED THESE NEEDS ANOTHER JOB!!!!THE PHOTOS, INITIAL IMPRESSION IS WELL THAT IS NOT THAT GOOD,SEE THE GUY CLARK ONE?? A BOOK OF TEXAS SINGER SONGWRITERS AND NO KIMMIE RHODES,CHARLIE AND BRUCE ROBISON,LARRY JOE TAYLOR,ED BURLESON,TOMMY ALVERSON,WILLIE,GEORGE JONES???MAYBE THATS THE GREATNESS OF TEXAS, NO BOOK IS BIG ENOUGH TO INCLUDE IT ALL.
THIS IS AN EXPENSIVE BOOK,THE CONCEPT WAS GREAT, BUT THE FINISHED PRODUCT IS AT BEST DISAPOINTING--AND THAT IS JUST BECAUSE ITS TEXAS.
Product Description
This superb fingerpicking reference book features 101 authentic, traditional blues fingerstyle licks for guitar. The goldmine of licks is divided into the following categories: Four-beat licks; Eight-beat licks; Introductions and turnarounds. The licks are written in both standard notation and guitar tablature, and recorded at a moderate speed on the companion CD. This is not a method book for beginners, but a nice collection of licks for guitarists who have some fingerstyle ability and want to do some exploring. Another GREAT guitar book from Red Dog Music Books.
Book Description
Musicians Institute instructor Robert Calva covers rhythm and lead guitar in the styles of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, T-Bone Walker, Freddie King and Albert Collins. He teaches: 24 common blues licks; common blues "box" positions; shuffle blues, slow blues, Latin blues and straight blues; and more. The book includes standard notation and TAB, and the CD features 34 full-band tracks.
Customer Reviews:
This book is pretty good........2006-03-14
I have to say I did enjoy this book. Although it didn't really blow my mind in any way, it did add some more licks to my lick vocabulary and I use the ones I learned in this book quite often because they are very applicable. Not the greatest blues guitar book but it does help if you are looking to expand your guitar playing style. + the book is worth the money, I don't regret this purchase at all.
Great.......2004-03-18
I really like this book. I fully aggree with the author. I am getting better at playing the blues. There are some very good fill-ins which you should carefully avoid to miss. They can make wonders to your guitar-playing. I have been playing blues (and guitar) now for some 8 months, and bought approximately 20 different books. This book is exactly what I needed to get a bit more confident. Yes, it feels as Robert Calva is present and teaches when you go through this book. Strange feeling, I begin to feel as a blues-player, suddenly !!
This book ROCKS!.......2002-03-06
I dig this book. It starts out with about 25 riffs in the Texas blues style. None of them are "raw beginner" type stuff. For example, they require a lot of bends, even 1-1/2 step bends, and those bends are in some pretty fast riffs. So you need a certain amount of experience under your belt, or you'll feel completely frustrated. It has made me work my fingers off.
On the other hand, if you do have at least a bit of experience, and you know your scales, your pentatonics, etc., then you learn some seriously cool riffs. Some of those riffs that you've always heard, but could never figure out on your own. I've been working on a couple in particular that, when played up to speed, are of the jaw-dropping variety. I almost can't believe that it's me playing them. Crank it up, baby!
The rest of the book is a collection of rhythms, with tab for all of the rhythm playing. These go on for six or eight choruses, so you have plenty of room to practice playing the riffs you've worked on. Then, you'll get two or more chourses of the same rhythm, with a sample tabbed solo played over it (which will incorporate some of the riffs at the start of the book). All of this is also great stuff.
Don't get me wrong. This is *not* a book to learn how to play lead. This is a book for somebody who already has a fairly good idea of what lead-playing is, who wants to learn some neat tricks. The author says that he uses the book with his students. If you were using this book with a teacher, I can see how this would be a good "from the ground up" tool to learn to play lead. But if you're just starting out, and you don't have a teacher, don't expect this book to teach you to play lead.
Anyway...this has been one of the funnest books I've gotten yet. In fact, I expect the author to reimburse me for all of the strings I've been breaking from these bends! Heh heh.
A word from the author.......................2002-01-26
Okay, I know some of you will question the objectivity of the author writing a review of his own work but I intend just to give some information regarding this book.
I have used the material in this book with my students at Musicians Institute for many years now and have gotten great results. After working through this book my students are much better players and improvisors. Regardless of your level and musical background you can get allot out of this book/CD. So, if you are into blues and want a good primer on blues guitar or play other styles but just want to improve your blues playing, then this book is for you!
Book Description
Explore traditional playing styles through transcriptions and analysis of 22 tunes by master Texas blues guitar players. Instruction in special tuning and bottleneck playing and a complete discography.
Customer Reviews:
A classic. Worth every penny. You will enjoy........2004-02-12
____________
BOTTOM LINE: Buy this book.
This is a well-constructed, quality book that will last for many years. The songs are legitimate Texas Blues, tabbed just the way the real bluesmen played them, not "in the style of". This is the REAL BLUES.
And a note about the "OAK ANTHOLOGY OF THE BLUES" series... Every book is collectible. That's why most are out of print and sell used for $50 and up (take a look at Oak's "Delta Blues" by Grossman). So, look at it this way: You're making an investment. You will not be disappointed. Buy this book!!!
Excellent teaching book.......1999-08-29
This is a very good book to explore the styles of Mance Lipscomb,Lightning Hopkins,Blind Lemon Jefferson and others.There is a feature on each Artist and an instruction on how to play each song.This is a style of playing that you really have to work at,but the tab makes it fun and rewarding.There is a plastic record (reminds me of the '70s ) which comes with the book and contains the Artists playing the songs.The only slight downfall for me was the choice of songs relating to Lightning Hopkins,but apart from that this is a brilliant book!
Book Description
"This book does a magnificent job of tracing the history of
conjunto music and musicians, and does much more.... Peña presents a highly convincing explanation for
conjunto music as an act of working-class self-affirmation and opposition to the upwardly aspirant middle class with its self-consciously Americanized
orquesta music.... Fascinating and well-researched."
—American Anthropologist
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but could have been better focused.......1999-06-09
Manuel Pena's analysis of conjunto's evolution is not so much a cogent layman's story of the music and its history, as it is an academic thesis on the socio-economic issues which helped forge the music. There are some interesting facts for the average music fan,..but overwhelming and a little boring is the sociological commentary which seems to go nowhere. Better suited perhaps for social science students. For a more succinct and readable history of the music check out Joe Nick Patowski's sharp Selena bio "Como La Flor," or the excellent "Billboard Guide to Tejano and regional/Mexican Music" by Ramiro Burr.
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