Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (Vintage)

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (Vintage)

by Angela Y. Davis

The author of "Women, Race and Class" suggests that "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday represent a black working-class, feminist ideology and historical consciousness. Davis' illuminating analysis of the songs performed by these artists provides readers with a compelling and transformative understanding of their musical and social contributions and of their relation to both the African-American... (more)

Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story

by David Ritz, Ray Charles

Ray Charles (1930-2004) led one of the most extraordinary lives of any popular musician. In Brother Ray , he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age... (more)

Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf

Moanin' at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf

by James Segrest

One of the greatest artists the blues ever produced, Howlin' Wolf was a musical giant in every way. He stood six foot three, weighed almost three hundred pounds, wore size sixteen shoes, and poured out his darkest sorrows onstage in a voice that captured all the pain of growing up black and poor in Jim Crow Mississippi. Half a century after his first hits, his sound still terrifies and inspires. Wolf began his... (more)

Clapton: The Autobiography

by Eric Clapton

I found a pattern in my behavior that had been repeating itself for years, decades even. Bad choices were my specialty, and if something honest and decent came along, I would shun it or run the other way. With striking intimacy and candor, Eric Clapton tells the story of his eventful and inspiring life in this poignant and honest autobiography. More than a rock star, he is an icon, a living embodiment of the... (more)

Morphing the Blues: The White Stripes and the Strange Relevance of Detroit

Morphing the Blues: The White Stripes and the Strange Relevance of Detroit

by Martin Roach

The history of the White Stripes and how Detroit's music scene fostered their development is explored for the first time in this intriguing band historiography. Full-length biographies of both band members track their success from their early days in Detroit to worldwide fame and recognition. Key interviews with people close to the band describe their critical and commercial rise to the top. A close look at the... (more)

Reservation Blues

by Sherman Alexie

Winner of the American Book Award and a critically acclaimed national best seller, Reservation Blues continues to find new and adoring readers in academic and popular circles alike. In 1931, Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil, receiving legendary blues skills in return. He went on to record only twenty-nine songs before being murdered on August 16, 1938. In 1992, however, Johnson suddenly... (more)

Tokio Blues

by Haruki Murakami

Toru Watanabe un ejecutivo de 37 anos escucha casualmente mientras aterriza en un aeropuerto europeo una vieja cancion de los Beatles y la musica le hace retroceder a su juventud al turbulento Tokio de finales de los sesenta. Toru recuerda con una mezcla de melancolia y desasosiego a la inestable y misteriosa Naoko la novia de su mejor y unico amigo de la adolescencia Kizuki. El suicidio de este les distancia... (more)

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

This story begins with shoes. This story is all for true. This story walks. And walks. And walks. To the blues. Rosa Parks took a stand by keeping her seat on the bus. When she was arrested for it, her supporters protested by refusing to ride. Soon a community of thousands was coming together to help one another get where they needed to go. Some started taxis, some rode bikes, but they all walked and... (more)

Rock n' Blues Harmonica: A World of Harp Knowledge, Songs, Stories, Lessons, Riffs, Techniques and Audio Index for a New Generation of Harp Players (Includes ... book and 74 minute stereo CD Jamming Buddy)

Rock n' Blues Harmonica: A World of Harp Knowledge, Songs, Stories, Lessons, Riffs, Techniques and Audio Index for a New Generation of Harp Players (Includes ... book and 74 minute stereo CD Jamming Buddy)

by Jon Gindick

NOT AN INSTANT HARMONICA BOOK! Jon Gindick's method is one of the most complete harmonica books ever. Rock n' Blues Harmonica uses fact, fiction, illustration and notation to teach Music Theory 101, chord progressions, puckering, tongueblocking, octaves, tongue-slaps, headshakes, vibrato, bends, overblows, secrets of great tone, and much more.

Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock 'N' Roll

Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock 'N' Roll

by Peter Guralnick

FEEL LIKE GOING HOME celebrates the building blocks of blues and early rock 'n' roll, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Chess record label. "Brings it back alive better than any book of its kind ever published".--Charles Shaar Murray, NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS. 80 photos.

Variations on Mary Had a Little Lamb

by Jerald M. Simon

A History of African American Jazz and Blues

A History of African American Jazz and Blues

by Joan Cartwright

Joan Cartwright Song Book

by Joan Cartwright

Brennan's War : Vietnam 1965-69Matthew Brennan

Brennan's War : Vietnam 1965-69

by Matthew Brennan

I Am the BluesWillie Dixon, Don Snowden

I Am the Blues

by Willie Dixon, Don Snowden

Bag of bones

by Stephen King

Ten years ago, Stephen King published Bag of Bones , a number one bestse ller, a tale of grie f, of love's enduring bonds, and the haunting secrets of the past . Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is unable to write and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs. Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway and... (more)

Buddy Bolden´s Blues