The blues is the bedrock of popular music and while its story has been told many times, rarely has it been told as effectively as this. The author has written two highly acclaimed books on Bob Dylan, and here uses his investigative skills to uncover the story of Blind Willie McTell, the bluesman who inspired the Dylan song of that name.
McTell, who died in 1959, was a man of mystery. Despite his blindness he was not your stereotypical ‘hard luck and raw power’ primitive bluesman, but was a sophisticated performer with a smooth tenor voice and a stunning command of the 12- string guitar. Though he enjoyed modest success in his lifetime and created a ‘standard’ with his song Statesboro Blues, he died in obscurity, and the few facts that were known about his life turned out to be wrong.
This quest to discover the ‘real’ McTell is part detective story, part biography, part travelogue and part social history. Along the way it says a great deal about the blues and the American South, while telling the moving story of “a remarkable man who lived through amazing times”.
