Review (PDF) Big Road Blues - 12 Bars On I-80
Big Road Blues - 12 Bars On I-80 is the often irreverent blues memoir by blues harmonica man Mark Hummel. Fact and fiction combine in this memoir in a variety of hilarious to frustrating incidents taken from twenty six years on the blues highway. Big Road Blues tells the story of a blues musician's life and trials, driving to and entertaining in clubs with his band, as they travel around the USA and the world. Mick Jagger and Sting lead the glamorous life on the road but not so with Hummel and his traveling troubadours of blues survivors. Working their way across the country from one blues venue to the next, in a van packed with the band, instruments, and product, in all degrees of violent weather, and managing a band of often radically troubled musicians in the process! Yet somehow, our harmonica virtuoso and promoter Mark Hummel, manages to play extended tours back and forth across the USA, Canada and overseas on a full time basis. Hummel has been playing over two hundred gigs a year for three decades! Big Road Blues - 12 Bars On I-80 contains some of the tall and small stories that grew from these adventures and misadventures on the Big Road Blues Highway! Throw in Mark Hummel himself, by no means a simple man, and the often insane club owners and you have the savory brew of the real life on the road! Hummel manages and books the tours himself and he has his work cut out for him. Are you ready to meet some of the worldwide network of unethical bar owners and promoters, sleazy motel managers, paranoid highway patrolmen, grumpy toll booth collectors, bored waitresses and convenience store clerks, brain-dead teenage Burger King employees who can't get an order right, vengeful customs officers, unscrupulous mechanics, novice tour directors, drunken fans that regularly insist on singing and dancing on stages (when there even is a stage) that provide no security? Then you're ready for this book!
Paperback: 322 pages
Publisher: Mountain Top Prod. (April 20, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0578097672
ISBN-13: 978-0578097671
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,420,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Hummel #355 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Historical Period > Classical #391 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Biographies > Rhythm & Blues
mark hummel is a dyed in the wool road muso, a more experienced player ,bandleader and tour organizer/promoter. well you wouldnt find one i enjoyed his life adventures on the road though being a married dude i feel he left out alot of the nitty gritty i wanted more drugs sex and booze stories , also being a harp player myself i would have like to learn more about his gear -which harps he plays what mics and amps he favours . but all and all a good read ive turned the fellow members of my harp club onto it . congrats on the book and tour playing man , im a fan
A pretty well written story about the adventures of a traveling musician. Mark has a great memory and his name recall is astounding. In addition to his skills with a harmonica I wish I had that name recall thing too!
For those of you who have often dreamed of a life on the road with fellow musicians and how glamorous and exciting that would be this is the book you need to read before you tell your wife you're hitting the road.I know Mark Hummel and there's not a harder working, more dedicated Bluesman out there today. That he is still alive is a testiment to his inner strength. By this book. Read this book. You'll be glad you did.
Great book by one of the genre's true road warriors! Great stories that make you feel like you are right there with Mark for all the stories. A rare glimpse of how life on the road as a musician can be...... A true testament to the saying that once you've gone on the road as a musician, nothing surprises you anymore. Sunshine and lollipops!!!
I am about halfway through and I love it! It ain't great by literary standards, as it's basically a rambling list of interesting, funny and sometimes harrowing stories... but you just feel like you're having breakfast after a gig with Hummel and he's telling you stories. I don't think you have to be a blues musician to like it, but anyone who has driven for hours on an icy highway to play at a blacked out nightclub will TRULY dig this book.
I know Mark Hummel and I already heard from him some of this stories.I'm happy that he decided to write some of his many stories he collect through his carreer, and he writes with humour and you feel just like he's telling this stories to you. Easy and smooth reading just like a good conversation with a good friend.
The author provides a vast collection of funny, frantic, and at times pretty twisted stories about life on the road as a band leader and blues musician. The book gives an insider look to anyone with an appreciation for live music. It's a "must read" for any fan of the blues as the author's resume reads like a who's who in American blues. Thanks for writing it Mark (and thanks for signing it for me at a gig)!
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