The Best of the Blues: The 101 Essential Blues Albums

by Robert Santelli

* Robert Santelli is the Director of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum * Author helped compile the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's infamous list, 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The blues is enjoying a strong resurgence; more people are listening to and buying blues music than ever before, and they have a lot of music now to choose from. Helping to sort out the confusion, acclaimed rock critic and blues expert Robert Santelli has compiled a list of the 101 most important blues albums, the works which are absolutely indispensable to a blues library. No one can argue with the effort and dedication with which Santelli has gone about his task. Each entry contains a thoroughly annotated discography with facts and dates, as well as meaty descriptions that place the albums in historical and artistic context.

Genres: Music, History

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Santelli (born January 31, 1952) is the executive director of the Grammy Museum and former CEO/artistic director of the Experience Music Project. He is the author of nearly a dozen books and a contributor to magazines such as Rolling Stone.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every list is an invitation to an argument - my list of the 101 best blues albums would be different from Mr. Santelli's - but it is also an opportunity to learn about albums/artists I've never heard of (e.g., Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell), and to learn more about artists/albums I already know. Santelli also weaves a fair amount of music history and definitions (as in, what is blues vs. blues rock?) into the book. He's knowledgeable about the music business, and history of various record labels, as well as the musicians themselves. He knows the side men, not just the headliners. He's not afraid to tackle the race issue (as in, how the blues went from music for blacks to music for whites in the 1960s). He is fair to blues artists of the 20s through the 90s, although I think he neglects post-1920s women blues artists (only Big Mama Thornton and Big Maybelle from the 50s). Where are Etta James, Koko Taylor, Marcia Ball, Susan Tedeschi? Also missing is jump blues, a sort of hybrid music that evolved from the smaller swing bands of post-war era.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Santelli's blues album guide is valuable, informative, tries to encompass a wide range of blues styles and is fair. Is it as essential as the blues albums he earmarks for us? Probably not, but it's a good read; he devotes three or four pages to each album and does a fine job of describing their historical significance. In a way, I suppose it's cheating to have singles compilations and best-ofs all over the place instead of straight album releases, but Santelli was right to take this approach. The opposite tack would eliminate virtually all blues recordings before 1960 after all. Many of those best-ofs have been supplanted by better releases since this was published, but that doesn't really matter. And one can always take issue with the selections on projects of this type, and I certainly do, here and there. Mostly, it's a good effort. A few blues genres are left in the lurch, but it's clear Santelli has tried hard to have many blues styles represented. Blues nuts should have this book, if just for the arguments.

[Jon Allor]

Well done book on Blues. Love the format and discovering new songs.