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Encyclopedia of the Blues
Encyclopedia of the Blues

By Gérard Herzhaft. Translated by Brigitte Debord.

Published by the University of Arkansas Press, 1992.

This is a hardbound book (covered in blue cloth), measuring 6" by 9" and running to 513 pages plus a brief preface.

It's less a true encyclopedia of Blues music and more a biographical dictionary of the blues with some added features.

The table of contents is as follows:

1. Encyclopedia of Blues Artists [which comprises most of the book]
   
2. Bibliography
   
   
   
   1. Discography
      
   2. Books about the Blues
      
   3. The Regions of the Blues
      
   4. The Bluesmen
      
   5. Books outside the Blues
      
   6. Reviews and Magazines
      
   
   
3. Select Discography
   
4. Anthology
   
5. Blues Standards
   
6. Blues Artists and their Instruments
   

Entries on blues artists are brief, mostly a half a page to two pages in length, and give some biographical information and describe the musicians' playing. The descriptions are fun to read and not dry at all.

I find some reason to question the reliability of this resource, however. I looked up one of my favorite blues artists, R. L. Burnside (who died September 1st of this year), and found a two page entry that referred to him more than once as a classic example of a Mississippi Delta Blues player, also referring to his personal, percussive style. I know Burnside from his recordings on Fat Possum Records, which specializes in Mississippi Hill Country Blues - that's Northern Mississippi rather than the Delta. Fat Possum offers Burnside as their leading player and best representative of Mississippi Hill Country Blues music, which differs from Delta Blues quite a bit. I'm not an expert on Blues music, so if I can find an error like this so easily the reliability of Herzhaft's book is somewhat questionable. At the time of writing, though, I think Fat Possum was just getting going, and Burnside had in fact made a recording of Delta Blues music, and the distinct sound of Hill Country Blues may not yet have been known in Europe (where this book was put together).

I'd say it's a useful book but should be in combination with other sources and not relied upon too much for accuracy.