Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues & Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Peter Guralnick, New York: Outerbrdige & Dienstfrey, 1971.
Feel Like Going Home was the first in an impressive line of highly acclaimed books of musical history, biography, and analysis by Boston area author Peter Guralnick. Here Guralnick begins by detailing the process of his own discovery and appreciation of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, followed by a blues history essay revolving around seminal bluesmen from Texas and Mississippi. The core of the book comes in the chapters on individual artists, as Guralnick offers personal and revealing portraits of the men whose music he most admired, drawing on interviews from his own visits to meet the legends: Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Skip James, Robert Pete Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich. Extending the coverage to the personalities behind two iconic record labels, Guralnick profiles Sam Phillips of Sun Records and Phil Chess and others in the Chess Records operation in the final chapters.
— Jim O’Neal
www.stackhouse-bluesoterica.blogspot.com