om 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. This deceptively simple, 12-bar musical form 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."

• 350 stunning photographs and illustrations
• A wealth of archive photography
• Rare graphic memorabilia
• Foreword by Marshall Chess, veteran record producer with his family's legendary Chicago rhythm-and-blues label, Chess Records

Author Mike Evans is a musician, editor, and author whose books include the best-selling 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.