Out of the Blue : Life on the Road With Muddy Waters

Bisesi, Brian; Margolin, Bob (FRW)

ISBN 10: 1496849124 / ISBN 13: 9781496849120

Published by University Press of Mississippi, 2024

About this Item

Unread book in perfect condition.

Seller Inventory # 46667226

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Out of the Blue : Life on the Road With Muddy Waters
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496849124
• ISBN 13: 9781496849120
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

VOTED BEST BLUES BOOK OF 2024 IN THE LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE READERS’ POLL

Out of the Blue: Life on the Road with Muddy Waters begins with a moment lifted from a young musician’s dreams. Brian Bisesi, a guitarist barely out of his teens, is invited on stage to fill in for a missing member of the band backing blues legend Muddy Waters. This life-changing quirk of fate opens the door into a world of challenges and opportunities that Bisesi, an Italian American reared in the comforts of a New York City suburb, can barely imagine. Despite their differences, Bisesi and Waters hit it off, and what might have been a one-night stand turns into a career. From 1978 to 1980, Bisesi works for Waters as his road manager, bean-counter, and at times his confidant, while often sitting in with the band.

Bisesi’s years with the band take him to Europe, Japan, Canada, and across the United States as Waters tours―and parties―with rock gods like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, a Beatle, and the gamut of musicians who came of age with Waters and introduced a younger generation to the blues. In Out of the Blue, Bisesi captures it all: from the pranks and tensions among bluesmen enduring a hard life on the road, to observations about Waters’s technique, his love of champagne and reefer, his eye for women, and his sometimes-acrid views of contemporary music. Bisesi has sharp insights into the ill-conceived management decisions that led to the dissolution of Waters’s longest-serving band in June of 1980. This book will rivet, amuse, and occasionally infuriate blues aficionados. It is a raucous and intimate portrait of the blues scene at a pivotal moment in time that fascinates music historians and blues fans alike.

About the Authors

Brian Bisesi went on from touring with Muddy Waters to play across the US, Europe, and Canada with blues masters Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, J. B. Hutto, and others. He also toured and coproduced albums for Waters’s son, Big Bill Morganfield. Blues Explosion, recorded with Hutto, won the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. Bisesi’s writing has appeared in the magazines Big City Rhythm & Blues and Rhythms.

Bob Margolin played guitar in Muddy Waters’s band from 1973-1980. He tours worldwide and writes a regular column for blues magazines.