Blues Fakebook (Fakebooks)

Rating:
Summary: Play the Greats
Review: This book provides a wide range of blues music information. When used along with the original recordings the book helped speed the learning curve for the whole band.

We were surprised by the number of lyrics that differed from those published in the book. However, this just added to the fun of playing the classics.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Scholarship
Review: While one can have a lot of fun and enhance one's repertoire of blues, the scholarship in this book is very disappointing. The charts were worked out from recent performances, which is fine as far as that goes, but the works are credited to purportedly original sources and/or early recordings. However the transcriptions frequently do not match the original and early performances to which they are credited in lyrics or key; they do, typically, match recent interpretations. Too bad this valuable source of blues songs is marred by this sloppy crediting of the versions presented.

Rating:
Summary: May not be what you're looking for
Review: While there is an impressive array of songs and great pictures in here, it is not really a fake book per se; there is no tablature or instruction for playing these songs, and if that't what you're looking for, this ain't it. Also some of the information in here about composers, performers, etc. is erroneous- if I can catch it, the author should have.