Reviews

"'Your life is the life you live. What you live is how it should be written.' So says Townsend on the last page of his as-told-to-autobiography describing almost 90 years of a bluesman's life... Credit Greensmith for preserving the wonderful conversational tone of Townsend's narrative, for providing chapter notes that add details, and for a discography that goes to 1997." - Choice "A fascinating look at the venerable singer/guitarist/pianist's life and times. Townsend's meetings with Robert Johnson and gigs with Big Joe Williams and other lesser-known musicians are expressively recounted in his own words in this thin but nonetheless valuable volume. And, as always, the story of regional blues in the last century also opens a window on American history, society, and culture in general. If this isn't one of Oprah's book club picks ... it definitely receives Sweet Home's highest recommendation." - Kevin Toelle, Sweet Home "Takes the reader on an intimate tour of the world of 'gut bucket style blues' that distinguished the St. Louis style from the Chicago or Mississippi blues emerging during the same time period... His recollections are detailed, unvarnished, and often surprising." - Missouri Life "The recollection of life in St. Louis and its attendant blues scene ... is the book's selling point, and Townsend gets his points across with his own lyrical, vernacular voice... [Greensmith provides] a corrective for all those who have written about blues singers, but never bothered to talk to one." -- Stuart L. Goosman, Ethnomusicology