Bill Wyman’s Blues Odyssey
Bill Wyman with Richard Havers
In this evocative and personal history of the Blues, Bill pays tribute to the musicians who inspired him and whose music he took around the world as a member of The Rolling Stones.
The starting point of Bill's Odyssey is the journey of African slaves to the plantations of America’s deep South. We follow their descendants as they walk, drive and ride the railroads out of the Delta and the troubled South via Memphis to the northern cities of Chicago and St Louis. But this is no superficial history: Bill Wyman’s in-depth odyssey reveals a society where poverty and injustice as well as love and faith found their expression in a musical style that gave birth to rock n’ roll.
Location shots of smoky jook joints, railroad stations and endless highways combine with stunning maps to bring the Blues alive. Feature spreads with previously unpublished photographs from Bill Wyman’s personal archive. Showcase 40 Blues legends from Robert Johnson to John Lee Hooker telling the story of their fascinating and often troubled lives
There have probably been more scholarly books written about the blues. Yet few can have dealt with the subject in more accessible and winning style than Bill Wyman's lavishly illustrated 400-page journey around some of the most powerful and compelling music ever made. Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey is quite simply the best single comprehensive volume on the subject
Uncut Magazine
Blues Odyssey is a thorough and accessible history, pitched at the mainstream market but commendably without apparent dilution of content. The detailed text by Wyman and Richard Havers is supported by hundreds of photographs; all interspersed with maps, lyrics, song histories and recommended listening
Times Literary Supplement
"A fascinating, lavishly illustrated history of blues music..." - Sunday Telegraph
"Impresses with its fluency, its range and its authority..." - The Scotsman
"A supremely stunning literary achievement... The single most important and rewarding volume ever published on the subject." - Goldmine magazine