Author Topic: Son House Bio at Elderly (Read 4608 times)

RobBob · « **on:** May 27, 2011, 06:29:18 AM »

This appeared in an email in my in box this morning:

PREACHIN' THE BLUES - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SON HOUSE by Daniel Beaumont
As a young Baptist preacher Eddie "Son" House scorned sinful music until one night in 1927 when the hauntng sound of a bottleneck guitar changed his life. House began singing and playing guitar and within a few short years he was a blues legend. This full-length biography traces a life and career marked not only by musical greatness but also by violence, alcoholism, two marriages, two decades in obscurity, and fianlly a surprising comeback. Hardcover. 224 pp.
581-6.....$24.95 [Biography]
http://www.elderly.com/books/items/581-6.htm

uncle bud · « **Reply #1 on:** May 27, 2011, 07:46:44 AM »

I didn't know it was out already. Jeff Harris is doing an interview with the author on his show this Sunday, at http://www.sundayblues.org.

Stumblin · « **Reply #2 on:** May 27, 2011, 09:58:42 AM »

Neat. I'll wait for the paperback edition though.

Bunker Hill · « **Reply #3 on:** May 27, 2011, 10:30:43 AM »

Table of Contents from OUP site:

Preface
Chapter 1: The Second Coming of the Son
Chapter 2: "Ramblified"
Chapter 3: "The Blues Blowed My Spirit Away"
Chapter 4: My Black Mama
Chapter 5: Dry Spell Blues
Chapter 6: Jinx Blues
Chapter 7: Eclipse
Chapter 8: "Father of the Folk Blues"
Chapter 9: "He Was Who He Was"
Chapter 10: The Legacy of Son House
Appendix 1: Song Lyrics
Appendix 2: Southold, NY, Police Report
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

MuddyBuddy · « **Reply #4 on:** May 27, 2011, 11:44:28 AM »

Can't wait to get hold of it! Doing a Son House on my upcoming cd this time too. He started me out on the blues when I saw him on tv in 1966....

Cheers
BERT

GhostRider · « **Reply #5 on:** May 27, 2011, 02:04:38 PM »

On Amazon Canada this is $17.52 Cdn, but not available until July 1.

Alex

CF · « **Reply #6 on:** May 29, 2011, 06:01:23 PM »

Quote from: uncle bud on May 27, 2011, 07:46:44 AM

I didn't know it was out already. Jeff Harris is doing an interview with the author on his show this Sunday, at http://www.sundayblues.org.

Anybody catch this? I had a band practise but caught about the last hour of it & it sounds like this is quite a book with some new info about House that we didn't know about previously . . . including the fact that Son killed (another?) a guy in the 1950s in Long Island! Jeff, please offer this show as a download, the author sounded like he really knew his stuff.

jharris · « **Reply #7 on:** May 29, 2011, 07:45:43 PM »

Quote

Anybody catch this? I had a band practise but caught about the last hour of it & it sounds like this is quite a book with some new info about House that we didn't know about previously . . . including the fact that Son killed (another?) a guy in the 1950s in Long Island! Jeff, please offer this show as a download, the author sounded like he really knew his stuff.

I know there's lots of interest in this book on the forum. Dan's a good friend of mine so I've read the book in its various forms over the past couple of years. I may be biased but I think this is a first rate biography and a very compelling story. Here's the link to the full show: http://sundayblues.org/feeds/brb_5.29.mp3. Show notes (mostly drawn from the book) and playlist available at the website.

Gumbo · « **Reply #8 on:** May 30, 2011, 07:13:53 AM »

Sounds like a fine tale in the telling. Great choice of songs too. I'm on my second listen through!

jharris · « **Reply #9 on:** June 08, 2011, 08:46:33 AM »

Just a head's up that there's now a website for the book at: www.preachingtheblues.com. Content is still being rolled out so make sure to check back. In upcoming days the author will post a chapter that did not make it into the book called "Legacy."

jaycee · « **Reply #10 on:** June 08, 2011, 09:27:32 AM »

does anyone know the date that the book is published in the u.k? assuming the the book will be published here of course.

Bunker Hill · « **Reply #11 on:** June 08, 2011, 10:01:07 AM »

Quote from: jaycee on June 08, 2011, 09:27:32 AM

does anyone know the date that the book is published in the u.k? assuming the the book will be published here of course.

September, supposedly but you know how such targets may change.

MuddyBuddy · « **Reply #12 on:** June 08, 2011, 12:24:35 PM »

I live in Sweden and ordered it today here and will have in a few days. It was in stock! I imagine it can be had in the UK now too.

Cheers
BERT

jostber · « **Reply #13 on:** June 08, 2011, 02:58:14 PM »

Quote from: MuddyBuddy on June 08, 2011, 12:24:35 PM

I live in Sweden and ordered it today here and will have in a few days. It was in stock! I imagine it can be had in the UK now too.

Cheers
BERT

Sounds mighty good! Did you order it from the web?

MuddyBuddy · « **Reply #14 on:** June 09, 2011, 12:54:49 AM »

Ordered it from the Swedish store ADLIBRIS. They had it in stock.

amazing!

BERT

jaycee · « **Reply #15 on:** June 09, 2011, 09:57:37 AM »

just checked the amazon u.k. site. the book isn't published in the u.k. till september. and its priced at ?15.19p. you can obviously pre order if you feel the need to.

RobBob · « **Reply #16 on:** June 14, 2011, 02:10:46 PM »

Just got an email from Amazon saying that the Son House book and the new Mississippi John Hurt book both shipped today.

jostber · « **Reply #17 on:** June 18, 2011, 08:42:21 AM »

This is also available over at Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Preachin-Blues-Daniel-Beaumont/9780195395570

MuddyBuddy · « **Reply #18 on:** June 18, 2011, 08:53:00 AM »

Got mine yesterday here in Sweden! leafed through it and will start reading tomorrow...

Cheers
BERT

jostber · « **Reply #19 on:** June 18, 2011, 01:44:27 PM »

Got it on order myself together with MJ Hurt book!

Bunker Hill · « **Reply #20 on:** July 03, 2011, 05:26:24 AM »

Brief review at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/review/R2M24F5ZEIAX40

Will keep an on on Ron's blog for his lengthier review.

dj · « **Reply #21 on:** July 04, 2011, 05:26:48 AM »

One of Weinstock's criticisms is that Preachin' The Blues contains "no discography of Son's recordings including CD releases". But Daniel Beaumont does point the reader to Stefan Wirz's discography, once in a footnote and in the bibliography.

By the way, Philip Ratcliffe's John Hurt biography also lists Stefan as a resource, in the Acknowledgements (no bibliography in the book, and I haven't searched online for it yet). Congartulations, Stefan! You've become an academic resource.

Bunker Hill · « **Reply #22 on:** July 04, 2011, 05:54:59 AM »

Quote from: dj on July 04, 2011, 05:26:48 AM

By the way, Philip Ratcliffe's John Hurt biography also lists Stefan as a resource, in the Acknowledgements (no bibliography in the book, and I haven't searched online for it yet). Congartulations, Stefan! You've become an academic resource.

Give that man a cigar....

No bibliography? I live in hope of it being online by the time the book is available in UK.

Stefan Wirz · « **Reply #23 on:** July 04, 2011, 06:08:27 AM »

Quote from: Bunker Hill on July 04, 2011, 05:54:59 AM

Quote from: dj on July 04, 2011, 05:26:48 AM
By the way, Philip Ratcliffe's John Hurt biography also lists Stefan as a resource, in the Acknowledgements (no bibliography in the book, and I haven't searched online for it yet). Congartulations, Stefan! You've become an academic resource.
Give that man a cigar....

"Die Wissenschaft, sie ist und bleibt ...
was Einer ab vom Andern schreibt" (Eugen Roth)
rough translation (without a rhyme): Science is only what one copies from others ...
But thanks for those kind words !!!
... and btw: I gave up smoking around 52 years ago (after having "smoked" my first - non filter - cigarette from my first self bought package - with a lot of tobacco crumbs in my mouth --- couldn't understand what was the use of it all --- and can't until today ;-)

JohnLeePimp · « **Reply #24 on:** July 04, 2011, 11:40:05 AM »

Quote from: Stefan Wirz on July 04, 2011, 06:08:27 AM

... and btw: I gave up smoking around 52 years ago (after having "smoked" my first - non filter - cigarette from my first self bought package - with a lot of tobacco crumbs in my mouth --- couldn't understand what was the use of it all --- and can't until today ;-)

...Ask Freud

(not really, Cigars are awsome because they're the only way to celebrate without appearing all giddy)

jharris · « **Reply #25 on:** July 04, 2011, 11:57:14 AM »

Quote from: dj on July 04, 2011, 05:26:48 AM

One of Weinstock's criticisms is that Preachin' The Blues contains "no discography of Son's recordings including CD releases". But Daniel Beaumont does point the reader to Stefan Wirz's discography, once in a footnote and in the bibliography.

Dan basically told me there was no point in adding a discography (just a link) because Stefan's was so complete. Hard to argue with that.

eric · « **Reply #26 on:** July 04, 2011, 12:01:25 PM »

Beaumont has an interesting thesis: Unlike so many bluesmen who found religion after playing the blues, Son had religion to start with, then had a powerful spiritual conversion to the blues. And to be sure, I can't think of anyone who plays with more commitment than Son. Also kind of explains the sermons that were part of his act. I enjoyed the book.

MuddyBuddy · « **Reply #27 on:** July 04, 2011, 12:02:18 PM »

Stefan's discographies are a real service to music lovers!

GhostRider · « **Reply #28 on:** July 06, 2011, 01:50:16 PM »

My copy arrived yesterday. I'm only partway through it, but so far I'm impressed. And I for one like the footnotes.

More when I'm done,
Alex

Gumbo · « **Reply #29 on:** July 06, 2011, 07:30:27 PM »

Quote from: GhostRider on July 06, 2011, 01:50:16 PM

My copy arrived yesterday. I'm only partway through it ...

tsk tsk
a little more application please

rjtwangs · « **Reply #30 on:** July 07, 2011, 08:11:54 PM »

I've just ordered this book, can't wait to get it. It's also been a really good time for books about these great men. In the past few weeks I've read the recent biographies on John Hurt and Big Bill Broonzy, both great reads and highly recommended. I hope they keep on coming...

RJ

RB · « **Reply #31 on:** March 14, 2014, 04:45:26 PM »

I was just looking over some old, saved email and I found this, from a friend, written November, 2011:

Quote

I subscribe to the Times Literary Supplement, it?s a bit of an indulgence, higher priced than other magazines that do the same thing. But it?s a weekly and its reviews are compact, most contained within a page, a few going on for several pages. A few weeks ago I saw a review for Preaching The Blues, a biography of Son House by Daniel Beaumont, published by the Oxford University Press. There is a phrase in the review speaking of how he brought a touch of the ?numinous? to juke joints. A nice turn of phrase, the sort of thing you read in the TLS. Don?t know if it is exactly true, but it was sharp enough to have me remember it. The review mentions him being a drunkard and not quite at ease with his later career in the folk music world of the 1960?s. Remembered a time sitting in the basement of the Main Point when I must have been sixteen years old, with some other young white guys and him. Yes, he was uneasy, I think, although at the time I would not have interpreted his behavior that way. Seemed friendly, quiet, but probably wanted to get away and have a drink or two with some grown ups more like him.

Have not yet ordered the book, and don?t really know if I will, though there is probably a lot in it I would like to know. But something gives me a bad feeling about it. The author is a college professor at Rochester.

RobBob · « **Reply #32 on:** April 10, 2014, 10:08:31 AM »

It is not a bad book, but an academic can't get to the core of a bluesman.

Gilgamesh · « **Reply #33 on:** April 30, 2014, 06:02:29 PM »

I just read the book and totally recommend it. What I loved about it was how much it was simply a straightforward biography. I recall little, if any, romanticism, or the purple prose you typically find with Delta Blues, or the exaggerated importance of the subject, which you typically find in music bios, and bios generally.

I did not know that Son first heard the slide guitar c. 1927. That really makes you wonder how prevalent slide guitarists were in the region prior to the mid-late 1920s.

oddenda · « **Reply #34 on:** May 01, 2014, 02:20:19 AM »

RobBob -

Neither can any White guys... not really. "W.E." are marginal.

Peter B.

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Author Topic: Son House Bio at Elderly (Read 4608 times)