Blues Discovery: Reaching Across the Divide (Rev. Ed., 2023), by Matthew Ismail

This is a book about discovery, a passion for blues, and the changing American society of the 1950s to 1980s in which a few intrepid souls sought out the great bluesmen of the 1920s to 1940s.

"We were basically chasing sounds, you know? We were going after what we dug. We weren't thinking of trends or movements, revivals . . . We couldn't get enough of the records, which were hard to come by in those days, and when we found out that you can hear it in the flesh, we couldn't get enough of that."

Roger Brown

Roger Brown with Furry Lewis, Memphis, 1968

Blues Discovery: Reaching Across the Divide (Revised Edition, 2023) tells the stories of half a dozen Americans who defied the dictates of segregation in the 1940s to the 1960s and followed their passion for the blues across the color lines. Roger Brown, George Mitchell, Ray Flerlage, Bob Koester and Samuel B. Charters all set out on odysseys of musical discovery when they sought out bluesmen such as Robert Johnson, Will Shade, Furry Lewis, Gus Cannon, Buddy Moss, Big Joe Williams, and Sleepy John Estes whose recordings from the 1920s and 1930s had been such a deep source inspiration to them all. This is a story of humane values and musical genius in a rapidly changing society.

Amazon Review of Blues Discovery

“In this excellent written book Matthew Ismael takes you with him and some other blues lovers (a.o.the great Samuel Charters) researching the roots of (rhythm and) blues as youngsters who were fascinated by this music.He did that in the country where it all came from. I and many youngsters with me did that in Europe during the sixties, seventies and eighties on our way: via a.o..the Rolling Stones we discovered Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and many others. Eric Clapton praised Freddy and BB King in interviews.Via Randy Newman (who was very popular here in the Netherlands in the early seventies) I discoverd the great rhythm and blues of Fats Domino, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker (Randy mentioned their names over and over again in many interviews). Blues got very populair over here and many great blues musicians found their way to European stages and European record labels.
Many blues musicians settled in Europe. That made it possible for us to research the blues like these young americans did. That's why this book is such joy to read!”

J. Athmer