Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B. B. King - Paperback

by B. B. King (Author), David Ritz (Author)

"A treasure trove of information...told with real feeling." --Washington Post Book World

"Charming...honest...transcendent.... It reads like a warm and lengthy conversation with a close friend." --Billboard

The undisputed king of the blues, B.B. King puts his life into words in a story that spans tragedy, triumph, and everything in between--and he tells it just how he plays it, straight from the heart. A true-to-life tale of overcoming monumental odds to succeed as an artist in an often unfriendly world, Blues All Around Me is also the story of how blues music changed during its migration from the Mississippi Delta to urban areas such as Chicago. Rolling Stone calls B.B.'s memoir a "very American success story [told] with the lyricism and leisurely pace of a born storyteller."

Back Jacket

B. B. King has the blues running through his blood.

Growing up in the rural poverty of the Mississippi Delta, King first experienced the blues at nine years old, when his mother passed away. The man of the house before the end of his first decade, he used this strife as a source of inspiration and launched one of the most celebrated musical careers in American history.

King has led a remarkable life, and this riveting autobiography dramatizes his whirlwind adventures from the Memphis of the forties to the Moscow of the nineties with unflinching candor and sincerity. But most of all, B.B.'s story is the story of the blues--the evolution from country acoustic to urban electric, the birth and explosion of rock 'n' roll--and B.B.'s own long, but ultimately triumphant, struggle for crossover success, during which he remained unwaveringly true to the music of his heart.