JOHN MILWARD has been the pop music critic of the Chicago Daily News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and USA Today, and has contributed articles and reviews to Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, among many others. He lives in Woodstock, New York.
"After reading this book, you won't ever listen to rock 'n' roll
music the same way again."--Ted Gioia, author of Delta Blues
"John Milward has written an engaging, well-researched history of
the all important connection between blues and rock. It's a welcome
and valuable contribution."--Bonnie Raitt
"John Milward has delivered a comprehensively fine work here. Truly
a telling tale of the crossbreeding of styles and expressions which
interchangeably have fueled the blues and rock fire."--Billy F
Gibbons, guitarist for ZZ Top
"John Milward's Crossroads is a work of rare beauty and deep faith
in which all our love is never in vain. He knows that somewhere
beneath the interstate and the strip malls on the outskirts of
every town is our still-beating spirit heart, calling us to
barrelhouse by the riverside."--Fred Goodman, author of The Mansion
on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and the Head-on
Collision of Rock and Commerce
"There has never been any underestimating the influence that blues
had on rock music. But Milward makes the connections seem fresh and
as alive as when they were happening and evokes the openness that
enabled blues to get 'in the bloodstream of generations of
musicians.'"--Chicago Tribune
"Crossroads is both an important and immensely enjoyable read.
Milward beautifully illuminates the relationship between the two
musical genres. It's a fascinating presentation that makes
listening to the music even more meaningful and
gratifying."--Fretboard Journal
"Rich in anecdotes and insight, 'Crossroads' offers a welcome
tribute to the blues revival's most important legacy: the
collaboration--across race and class and generations--that
galvanized a music that had been left to wither and die."--Wall
Street Journal
"If R&B provided an early sonic template for rock & roll, it
was Chicago's all-in-electric wail and the terrors of the Delta
that birthed the great monolith of blues rock. First came the
Newport Folk Festival, coffeehouses and the rediscovery of blues
sages like Mississippi John Hurt and Fred McDowell--huge players in
this tale of how a strain of music from pre-Depression times jolted
the 1960s. John Milward, a longtime RS contributor, taps into how
talismanic that music was: perfect stuff for firing the
imaginations of Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Cream. It's no wonder
rock was galvanized in a whole new way, with reborn tales of
passway stones and unkempt graves underpinning it all."--Rolling
Stone
"For those who spent all or the majority of their informative
teenage years in the 1960s this is a must read publication. . . .
There is a terrific read here for everyone with its easy style and
loads of really interesting information. Highly
recommended."--Blues & Rhythm Magazine
"Milward's approach helps readers appreciate the complex tapestry
of blues-rock evolution through the eyes of the musicians and the
music's most avid followers . . . ."--Choice
"The real joy of Crossroads is well-tuned prose that illuminates
the music along with its history."--Chronogram
"Which acoustic guitarist had the greatest influence on rock 'n'
roll -- arguably as significant as electric counterparts like Muddy
Waters, T-Bone Walker, B.B, Albert and Freddie King, and Buddy Guy?
Judging from John Milward's new book Crossroads: How the Blues
Shaped Rock 'n' Roll (and Rock Saved the Blues), I'd say the honors
go to fingerpicking Piedmont bluesman Rev. Gary Davis. . . . These
are the kind of connections Milward makes in Crossroads as he
traces the earliest exposure of masses of white kids to country
blues."--emusic.com
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