The Life and Music of Booker “Bukka” White: Recalling the Blues

As Johnson (Lonesome Melodies: The Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers) attests in the final chapter of this comprehensive but occasionally laconic biography, Booker “Bukka” White hasn’t always been granted his due as one of the foundational players of American blues. Johnson’s exhaustively researched book is a labor of love, rooted in his sole in-person meeting with White in 1976. His accounting of his research highlights the challenges of ascertaining such basic facts as where and when White was born. White was fond of a good yarn; his recordings are notable for their lengthy improvisational storytelling as well as for his considerable technical and expressive accomplishments on the guitar. The later chapters, following White’s revived career in the 1960s and 1970s, proceed on surer ground. The biography is a thorough and affectionate look at a complex artist whose influence on musicians ranging from Bob Dylan and B.B. King (White’s second cousin) to Corey Harris and Eric Bibb is well established.