Chicago Breakdown, by Mike Rowe. London: Eddison, 1973; New York: Drake, 1975. Reprinted as
Chicago Breakdown chronicles the city’s storied blues history from the days of Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy into John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and then into the electrified era of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Otis Rush, Magic Sam and many more in this expertly crafted teatise by Rowe, a British collector, Blues Unlimited contributor, and one of the leading cognoscenti on classic Chicago blues. Drawing from demographic and discographical data as well as his own interviews with the musicians, Rowe pieces together a history that is largely based on the genre’s recorded legacy and organized by the musicians’ record label affiliations (Bluebird, Chess, Vee-Jay, et al.) while also documenting the great migration and the strong ties of the postwar Chicago style to the Mississippi Delta. The music’s 1950s heyday is described in the greatest depth, but Rowe also devotes a short chapter to ‘Chicago Today’ (as of the early ’70s when the text was written). The book concludes with an informative discussion of why it all happened in Chicago, along with record chart data, a discography, and a blues club map.
–Jim O’Neal
www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com