Reproduction of the original: Sonny Boy by Sophie Swett

John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson was one of the most popular blues harmonica players and singers from the late 1930s through the 1940s. Recording for the Bluebird Records and RCA Victor labels, Sonny Boy shaped Chicago's music scene with an innovative style that gave structure and speed to blues harmonica performance. His recording in 1937 of "Good Morning, School Girl," followed by others made him a hit with Southern black audiences who had migrated north. Unfortunately, his popularity and recording career ended on June 1, 1948, when he was robbed and murdered in Chicago, Illinois. In 1980, he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. Mitsutoshi Inaba offers the first full-length biography of this key figure in the evolution of the Chicago blues. Taking readers through Sonny Boy's career, Inaba illustrates how Sonny Boy lived through the lineage of blues harmonica performance, drawing on established traditions and setting out a blueprint for the growing electric blues scene. Interviews with Sonny Boy's family members and his last harmonica student provide new insights into the character of the man as well as the techniques of the musician. John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson: The Blues Harmonica of Chicago's Bronzeville provides fans and musicians alike an invaluable exploration of the life and legacy of one the Chicago blues' founding figures.

From the Amazon Charts bestselling author of An American Princess comes the true story of an unconventional family divided by war and prejudice during WWII. When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could not have been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother, estranged from her husband. He was her immigrant boarder, not yet twenty, and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together, brown skinned and blue eyed, brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows. Until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life. What unfolds is more than the astonishing story of a love that prevailed over convention. It's also the quest of a young boy. Through the cruelty of World War II, he will fight for a connection between his father's South American birthplace and his mother's European traditions. Lost and displaced for much of his life, but with a legacy of resilience in his blood, he will struggle to find his place in the world. Moving deftly between personal experience and the devastating machinations of war, The Boy Between Worlds is an unforgettable journey of hope, love, and courage in the face of humanity's darkest hour.

The frank, funny, and unforgettable autobiography of a living legend of Chicago blues. Simply put, Billy Boy Arnold is one of the last men standing from the Chicago blues scene’s raucous heyday. What’s more, unlike most artists in this electrifying melting pot, who were Southern transplants, Arnold—a harmonica master who shared stages with Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf, plus a singer and hitmaker in his own right who first recorded the standards “I Wish You Would” and “I Ain’t Got You”—was born right here and has lived nowhere else. This makes his perspective on Chicago blues, its players, and its locales all the rarer and all the more valuable. Arnold has witnessed musical generations come and go, from the decline of prewar country blues to the birth of the electric blues and the worldwide spread of rock and roll. Working here in collaboration with writer and fellow musician Kim Field, he gets it all down. The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold is a remarkably clear-eyed testament to more than eighty years of musical love and creation, from Arnold’s adolescent quest to locate the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson, the story of how he named Bo Diddley Bo Diddley, and the ups and downs of his seven-decade recording career. Arnold’s tale—candidly told with humor, insight, and grit—is one that no fan of modern American music can afford to miss.

Some voices you will hear in The Voice of the Blues: "I sing blues for some money and I sing because I love 'em. They tried to put me over in another bag but I just don't fit no other bag. Exactly I fits one shoe, and that is the blues."-Muddy Waters "I never did name one of my records 'the blues' . . . Everybody else called my sounds what I made 'the blues.' But I always just felt good behind 'em; I didn't feel like I was playin' no blues. I felt like it sound just as good to the spiritual people as it would to somebody in a bar. . ."-Jimmy Reed "The Voice of the Blues" brings together lengthy interviews with pioneering blues performers including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, B. B. King, and many others. Each interview captures the "voice" of the blues performer, reflecting life experiences, musical influences, and achievements. Illustrations include rare archival photographs and documents. A must for fans of the blues-both traditional and electric.

Nothing is more unsettling in this world than a kid with a gun . . . On the streets of Medellín, Colombia, actions speak louder than words, and the rule of the bandidos is the only law worth listening to. Like most kids of their age, Shorty and Alberto work for their local cartel. They run cigarettes, offer protection . . . and occasionally assassinate someone. The work is tough, and dangerous, but the boys are commanding respect like they've never known, and the money's pretty good too. But then one day Alberto disappears. And Shorty realises that he is never coming back. A gangster's life is cheap, and when revenge can be bought for only a few pesos, everyone has their price . . .