In this evocative and intensely personal history of the blues, Bill Wyman pays tribute to the musicians who inspired him and whose music he took around the world as a member of the Rolling Stones.
The starting point of Bill's Odyssey is the journey of African slaves to the plantations of America's Deep South. We follow their descendants as they walk, travel the highways, and ride the railroads out of the Delta and the troubled South via Memphis to the northern cities of Chicago and St. Louis. But this is no superficial history: Bill Wyman's in-depth odyssey reveals a society where poverty and injustice as well as love and faith, found their expression in a musical style that gave birth to rock 'n' roll.
Location shots of smoky juke joints, railroad stations, and endless highways combine with richly detailed maps to bring the Blues alive. Feature spreads with previously unpublished photographs from Bill Wyman's personal archive showcase 40 Blues legends from Robert Johnson to John Lee Hooker, telling the story of their fascinating and often troubled lives.
Bill Wyman is a legend in his own right. He has known and played with many of the Blues legends, and his personal knowledge and unprecedented access give this book an authenticity that is almost impossible to match.
Author Biography: William George Wyman was born in London and joined The Rolling Stones in 1962. The following year Charlie Watts joined the group and the legend was born. The band was later described by Geoffrey Cannon as "Perverted, outrageous, violent, repulsive, ugly, tasteful, incoherent. A travesty. That's what's good about them."
Bill is now the owner of The Ripple Group of companies and the London-based Sticky Fingers restaurant. He has also become known as an author, having written three books. The first was his autobiography Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock and Roll Band, (1990). Next, he created Wyman Shoots Chagall, (1998), a charming, limited-edition book that presented a selection of informal photographs taken by Bill of the late artist Marc Chagall. Each Wyman Shoots Chagall book included a CD of classical music entitled The Chagall Suite, which was written and arranged by Bill Wyman and Mike Batt. Finally, in September 2001, DK Publishing is releasing Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey to Music's Heart and Soul.
Wyman's solo recordings include Monkey Grip, Stone Alone, Bill Wyman and (Si Si) Je Suis un Rockstar, which reached the top 20 in several countries.
In 1985, Wyman gathered Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Andy Fairweather-Low, Chris Rea, Paul Rogers and Jimmy Page together in the studio, calling them Willie and the Poor Boys, and recorded an album to raise money for ARMS (The Multiple Sclerosis Charity). Wyman also recorded a second album, Willie and The Poor Boys Live, with Gary Brooker and other musician friends.
Bill Wyman has also been seen in several films, including Sympathy for the Devil, Gimme Shelter, Ladies and Gentlemen and Rolling Stones, Let's Spend The Night Together, Digital Dreams and Rolling Stones in IMAX, Larger Than Life. Bill wrote the soundtrack for the film Green Ice and contributed to the soundtracks for two Dario Argento films.
Bill's restaurant Sticky Fingers — which an American critic called, "The San Lorenzo of burger restaurants" — has recently reached its eleventh anniversary and over the years has won a variety of high profile awards, including The Sunday Times (London) award for Best Hamburger of 1999.
In 1996, in conjunction with his co-writer Terry Taylor, Bill Wyman decided to form a new band who would play a mixture of jazz and blues — music which first inspired Bill to pick up a bass guitar. The band, whose members include Georgie Fame, Albert Lee, Martin Taylor and Gary Brooker, became Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
The Rhythm King's first album Struttin' Our Stuff was released in 1997 and the second Anyway The Wind Blows in 1998. Anyway The Wind Blows was met with great reviews from magazines such as Q and Mojo and stormed to the top five of the Jazz and Blues album charts resulting in a successful UK tour. Groovin', The Rhythm Kings third album, was met with rave reviews in the UK, where it reached number 1 on the Jazz & Blues charts for 5 weeks and also successfully entered the national charts. It is just being released in the U.S. along with the band's newest album, Double Bill. Double Bill features George Harrison on slide guitar amongst many of Bill's other friends.
In 1993, Bill married Suzanne Accosta and together they have three young daughters — Katharine Noelle, Jessica Rose and Matilda Mae. He also has an older son, Stephen, from a previous marriage.
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