The deceptively simple, 12-bar musical form of blues has become the common denominator that has driven the popular music of the last hundred years. As John Lee Hooker put it: “The music we play . . . that music is the roots. Rock music, everything else, is like a branch on the same tree. It all comes from the blues.”

Charting the history of blues music from its rural roots in the American South, and focusing on the key musicians and singers who brought it recognition worldwide, The Blues: A Visual History is a unique and fully illustrated account of the development of the blues, and features: 

• 350 stunning photographs and illustrations
• A wealth of archive photography
• Rare graphic memorabilia
• Blues artists of every era, from pioneers like Ma Rainey and Robert Johnson, through legends such as Muddy Waters and B. B. King, to newer stars like Keb' Mo', Dom Flemons, and Shemekia Copeland
• Foreword by Marshall Chess, veteran record producer with his family’s legendary Chicago rhythm-and-blues label, Chess Records

Mike Evans is a musician, editor, and author whose books include the bestselling Elvis: A Celebration, and Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul. Consultant editor Robert Gordon is a Grammy Award–winning writer and filmmaker specializing in the music of the American south, and Scott Barretta is a blues specialist writer, broadcaster, and lecturer. Scott Barretta is a writer/researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail, and an instructor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Mississippi.