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Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell
 
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Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Paperback)

by Michael Gray (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (6 Oct 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747565619
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747565611
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Biography > Film, Television & Music > Music > Blues
    #14 in  Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Blues

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Product Description

Review
'Part biography/part travelogue, this is a fascinating exploration of the life of the Georgia bluesman from the great Dylanologist' Observer Music Monthly 'The narrative is sprinkled with curious information, memorable meetings and fogeyish asides. At the end of a fascinating journey we know much more not only about McTell but about the world of intractable otherness that blues musicians of his time had to negotiate' Tony Russell, Mojo 'A wonderful book about a spellbinding musician his understanding of the strange, contradictory forces that made McTell's music so beguiling is deep' Will Hodgkinson, Guardian 'Fascinating Gray is a fastidious researcher and here presents not just an authoritative portrait of the great bluesman, but also a vivid history of the South in general Gray is also a sharply observant travel writer and some of the book's best writing is devoted to brilliantly evocative descriptions of the backwaters he visits and the people he meets *****' Uncut

Metro
Gray has a journalist's eye for detail... he also has a music
lover's poetic appreciation for a great craftsman largely forgotten by
history. A wonderfully tantalising picture emerges of McTell as both a
bluesman and as someone intent on transcending definition, be it by his
blindness or his race.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of blues musician & the world where he recorded his music, 24 Jul 2007
By Mick Gold (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes - In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Hardcover)
Michael Gray's astonishingly detailed biography of Blind Willie McTell brings both the man and the world in which he made his music into vivid life. Almost like one of Willie's songs, Grays' book rambles through 150 years of American history - from Willie McTell's white Confederate great-grandfather to today's record companies and his current descendants puzzling over the royalties of songs that were recorded by Taj Mahal and the Allman Brothers. Willie remains a fascinatingly Protean figure. Always fiercely independent despite his blindness, he carried in his head a vivid mental image of the world as he rambled and recorded from Georgia to Chicago. There is a sense of how each person interviewed met a subtly different McTell. His clear tenor voice and idiosyncratic virtuoso 12 string guitar remain undimmed by the passing of time and inspired one of Bob Dylan's most haunting songs.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Well researched but dull in places. Still worth a look though., 28 Jul 2008
By doublegone (scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes - In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Hardcover)
There is a terrific long magazine article about Blind Willie McTell lurking inside this book. The effort it took researching it doubtless made Gray feel he deserved to put his name to the rather grander output of a book. The trouble is that often the little hard-won information there is about the bluesman is sometimes overshadowed by the story about how the author tracked it down. So rather than being the story of Blind Willie McTell, its the story of how Michael Gray researched the story of Blind Willie McTell. At least in titling the book "In search of..." author and pubisher are honest about this. You read at length about trips to libraries, archives, registrars, and county halls in search of documents. A lot of it hinges on birth, death and marriage certificates for McTell and many of his friends, family and acquintances. Its impressive what Gray tracks down but I am left wondering if it is all that interesting. Strangely there seems more detail of the family story in the 19th century than the 20th. The context-setting of the civil war period and its aftermath are quite excellent. Elsewhere though, facts can be scarce, and the travelogue of the contemporary south which Gray falls back on at these points, failed to really engage me. I'd give this book three and a half stars I suppose. For people interested in McTell it is worth reading, make no mistake. I just found some of the writing a little dull, and the book as a whole a little too long. It does contain the most complete discography of McTell in existence, and a lengthy explanation of what he recorded where and in what circumstance - with tantalising mention of tracks that are no longer in existence (as far as we know). For that alone Gray deserves praise, and his book will be of interest to fans of this music.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and insightful portrait, 5 Aug 2007
This review is from: Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes - In Search of Blind Willie McTell (Hardcover)
This is an eye-opening book, which has enriched my understanding and appreciation of Blind Willie McTell and the blues. Only the absence of maps and a family tree - essential given the welter of place names and people mentioned - prevents it getting five stars.
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