As the world celebrates the 100th birthday of Mississippi Delta blues legend Robert Johnson this spring, a new book about the blues genre and the land where it was born is set for release.

Hidden History of Mississippi Blues, published by The History Press (available April 2011), begins and ends in the land of cotton and juke joints — the land that introduced the world to Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and so many others lesser known but just as inspiring.

“Hidden History of Mississippi Blues is an overview of the music’s earliest days, height of popularity and current state of things,” explained author Roger Stolle, adding, “One ‘hidden’ aspect of Mississippi blues is that in addition to the past history, there is much that’s still present. Mississippi blues survives just under the radar in the juke joints and house parties of the Delta. It occasionally sticks its head out and gets on TV or goes on tour, but even then, it is such an archaic art form that many of the uninitiated aren’t really sure what to do with it once they’ve experienced it. You need to either find it where it still lives naturally or have a tour guide to help you make a virtual journey. This book attempts to do a bit of both.”

If anyone would know about blues in Mississippi, it would likely be Stolle. For most of the past decade, he has called Clarksdale, Mississippi — the heart of the blues Delta — his home. Owner of the Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store there, Stolle also books Mississippi blues acts for major clubs and festivals in the region, contributes to radio shows like XM/Sirius’ Bluesville, writes for magazines like Blues Revue , and produces indie blues films and albums.

The book came about after months of conversation and a bit of a search, according to Will McKay, the commissioning editor for the project.

“At The History Press, we had been talking about publishing a volume on Mississippi blues for some time,” said McKay. “With a book of this scope and magnitude, we really felt like it required an author with just the right voice and background to make it work. We wanted to try to cover a massively important and influential genre in just one book, and we wanted it to be immediately accessible to a mainstream audience. So, we were thrilled when Roger agreed to come on board.”

Telling the Mississippi blues story through important historical happenings, fascinating (sometimes humorous) interviews, and personal anecdotes, Stolle weaves together an addictive story that could only come from a land as rich in history and mystery as the cotton-fueled Delta.

“There’s a reason why rock musicians from the Rolling Stones to Jack White love the blues and continue to go back to the well for inspiration time and time again,” said Stolle. “It is the foundation, the dictionary. It is the root of all modern, popular music. A lot of younger rock, rap, R&B and soul musicians these days don’t even realize that their sounds and stage shows have been informed by the blues.”

Hidden History of Mississippi Blues begins with Stolle’s own personal journey from Midwestern white suburbia and big-city corporate America to a fascinating foreign land so close to home — the Mississippi Delta. Then, through both ancient and recent history, it tells the compelling story of the blues — sometimes in Stolle’s own voice, other times in the words of the men who were there and lived to tell about it.

To enhance this story, McKay and Stolle also invited another contributor into the loop — photographer and blues fan, Lou Bopp of St. Louis.

“When Will asked if I knew any good blues photographers, I told him I knew several,” recalled Stolle. “But the more we talked about the project, we decided that we wanted to feature photos of Mississippi’s living blues, not just archival shots. I met Lou in a juke joint when he was documenting just that — living blues — so he seemed like a natural. His photos capture both the musicians and the environment in which they thrive.”

Over forty photographs — some black and white, some color — help to put a face on Hidden History of Mississippi Blues. From the withered stare of an 83-year-old blues veteran to the playful expressions of a 27-year-old juke joint prodigy, Bopp’s photos add texture and life to an already engaging story.

Blues music producer Jeff Konkel of St. Louis-based Broke & Hungry Records contributed a Forward to the book as well — providing yet another experienced voice to the project.

Placed together, the words and photos of Hidden History of Mississippi Blues bring a music, history and people to the printed page in a purposely intimate way — leaving readers rooting for the bluesmen and pondering the future of the music.

Hidden History of Mississippi Blues will be available at book stores nationwide beginning in April. The book will also be available via The History Press web site at www.historypress.net, where it will be available for pre-order very soon.

Roger Stolle and Lou Bopp will hold their first book signing event at Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art (www.cathead.biz) in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on April 15th at 3pm — also the weekend of the Juke Joint Festival (www.jukejointfestival.com).

PALM SPRINGS, California (AP) — Blues guitarist and singer Phillip Walker, who backed such stars as Etta James and Lowell Fulson, has died. He was 73.

Marc Lipkin, publicity director for Alligator Records, says Walker died July 22, 2010, of heart failure in Palm Springs.

Walker performed for more than 50 years, recording many solo albums and touring with zydeco legend Clifton Chenier for two years.

In 1959, Walker moved to California, where he earned a reputation as one of the region’s top guitarists. He even joined Little Richard’s band for a brief time.

Over the past decade, Walker continued to record albums and tour, including an October 2009 stint in South Africa.

His most recent album, “Going Back Home,’’ was released in 2007.

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ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (AP) — Al Goodman, a baritone who performed on several soul and pop hits in the 1970s, including “Love on a Two-Way Street” and “Special Lady,” has died.

He was 67.

Family members say Goodman died July 26, 2010, from complications during surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Goodman first gained attention with The Moments when “Love on a Two-Way Street” topped the R&B chart in 1970 and reached No. 3 on the pop chart.

They went on to record several other hits, including “All I Have’” and “Sexy Mama,” before leaving the Stang label in 1979.

They then changed their name to Ray, Goodman & Brown and released “Special Lady,” which topped the soul charts and reached No. 5 pop.

The Jackson, Miss., native moved to the New York at 19 and found work as a sound mixer at an Englewood recording studio. He was selected to join The Moments after studio officials heard him singing while he worked.

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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Fred Carter Jr., a longtime Nashville studio musician and father of country musician Deana Carter, has died.

He was 76.

He died of complications from a stroke July 17, 2010, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, according to an obituary and funeral arrangements released by a public relations firm.

Born in Louisiana, Carter began his career as a staff guitarist on the Shreveport-based country music show known as the “Louisiana Hayride.”

He settled in Nashville in the late 1950s as a session player and worked with many prominent country artists, including Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. He also worked with Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Hank Cochran, a consummate songwriter who composed a string of country hits including “Make the World Go Away’’ for Eddy Arnold, died July 15, 2010. He was 74.

Cochran had been in declining health in recent years and had suffered an aortic aneurysm in March. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago.

Cochran co-wrote several No. 1 hits: Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces;” George Strait’s “Ocean Front Property;” and “Set ’em Up Joe’’ by Vern Gosdin. He also wrote the No. 1 hits “Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me,” “He’s Got You,” “I Want to Go With You’’ and “That’s All That Matters to Me.”

Cochran was born in Mississippi and worked the New Mexico oilfields as a young man. He arrived in Nashville in 1960, and got a job as a staff songwriter with Pamper Music for $50 a week, hired by country singer Ray Price.

Shortly after that, Cochran helped Willie Nelson get a songwriting job with Pamper. Nelson went on to write classics such as “Crazy,’’ sung by Cline, and enjoyed his own singing career.

Cochran was a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Tuli Kupferberg, a founding member of the Fugs, one of the first underground rock groups and a staple on the anti-war protest scene in the 1960s, died July 12, 2010, in a Manhattan hospital, said his friend and bandmate Ed Sanders. He was 86.

Kupferberg’s contributions were recognized in January when Lou Reed, Sonic Youth and others appeared at a benefit concert in Brooklyn to help pay for some of his medical expenses. He was too ill by then to attend the show, but recorded a video message, thanking the audience.

The Fugs were formed by Sanders and Kupferberg, who were neighbors on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in early 1965, according to the band’s Web site. Their name, a substitute for a common expletive, was inspired by Norman Mailer, who used it in his classic, “Naked and the Dead.’’ The band ran in the same circles as Andy Warhol, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It often performed at peace protests.

The group disbanded in 1969, but reformed several times since. It performed for a time on the Reprise label, which was owned by Frank Sinatra, who had final approval on album releases. Kupferberg, who also was a poet, produced cartoons for the Village Voice and had a longtime television program on the Manhattan public access cable channel, Sanders said.

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DETROIT (AP) —  Singer, songwriter and record producer Harvey Fuqua, 80, an early mentor of Marvin Gaye, has died.

Ron Brewington of the Motown Alumni Association says Fuqua died of a heart attack July 6, 2010, at a Detroit hospital.

The Louisville, Ky., native founded The Moonglows, which signed with DJ Alan Freed. The group’s first single was the 1954 hit “Sincerely.’’ Fuqua added Gaye and others in 1958 to a reconstituted group that he called Harvey and The Moonglows. It had the 1958 hit “Ten Commandments of Love.’’

He started Tri-Phi and Harvey Records in 1961, recording the Spinners, Junior Walker & the All Stars, and Shorty Long.

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy later hired Fuqua to develop recording talent.

Chicago didn’t give birth the blues. But the genre metamorphosed there.

The king of electric post-war Chicago blues was slide guitarist Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield, 1915-83). Filmed in 1981, “Live At Chicagofest” (Shout! Factory) shows him as down-home regal but aging. We see good close-ups of him, but the camera often lingers on aerial crowd shots, and microphones obstruct our view of his band. Rail-thin Johnny Winter sings lead on “You’ve Got To Love Her With A Feeling.”

Elsewhere, Waters’ The Johnny Winter Sessions 1976-1981 (Raven) cherry-picks 19 songs from his four LPs that Winter produced. Reworkings of earlier Chess singles (“Mannish Boy,” “I Can’t Be Satisfied”) abound.

Waters’ self-destructive harp man Little Walter (Marion Walter Jacobs, 1930?-68) took the tiny instrument places it had never been. Exhaustive and exhilarating, his five-CD, 126-track The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967) (Hip-O Select/Geffen) starts with Walter backing Waters, then moves to his own hits (“Juke,” “My Babe,” “Sad Hours,” “Mean Old World”), with alternate takes galore.

Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel, 1928-2008) recorded his classics prior to the material reissued on Ride On: The Chess Masters, 1960-61 (Hip-O Select/Geffen), the third package in his Chess reissue series. Still, there’s goofy charm in the two CDs’ 54 tracks — especially on material from Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger’s sessions. “Walkin’ And Talkin’” revamps The Coasters’ “Along Came Jones” for a channel flipper. The notes say that “Live My Life” voices his frustration with Chicago-based Chess.

Apart from guitar pyrotechnics, Buddy Guy knows how to milk a note for everything it’s got, not to mention when to drop the decibels. The Definitive Buddy Guy (Shout! Factory) often includes Junior Wells’ harp on 17 stylistically varied 1958-2001 tracks.

Windy City native Michael Bloomfield has been called baby-boom America’s first guitar hero. Raven’s 76-minute expanded reissue Live At Bill Graham’s Fillmore West 1969 — credited to “Michael Bloomfield With Nick Gravenites And Friends” — adds four tracks from fellow American Flag alum Gravenites’ My Labors (which was taped at the same gig), plus Bloomfield and Al Kooper’s live “Mary Ann.” It’s hardly Bloomfield’s best, but you get lots of music for your money.

Available as a 63-minute CD or nicely filmed 79-minute DVD, It Ain’t Over! Delmark Celebrates 55 Years Of Blues At Buddy Guy’s Legends In Chicago (Delmark) salutes the blues/jazz label with journeyman live performances from seasoned veterans like Lurrie Bell, Jimmy Johnson and Zora Young. Listen closely for the humor. Note that Guy doesn’t join the taping at his nightclub.

After years of backing the likes of Guy and Otis Rush, Big James And The Chicago Playboys strut Windy City blues/R&B/soul into the present on Right Here Right Now (Blind Pig). Hearty-voiced trombonist Big James Montgomery’s compositions have the ring of sincerity. Right Here opens aptly with his Obama-era title track’s message of hope coupled with responsibility.

From Texas rather than Chicago, two-CD The Johnny Winter Anthology (Shout! Factory) initially concentrates on the blues. Though it spans 1969-2004, 28 of its 35 tracks (some in concert) predate 1977. His screaming guitar slashes through Bob Dylan, Little Richard and Rolling Stones compositions, plus his own lean and feral “Black Cat Bone.”

Meanwhile, to commemorate Woodstock’s 40th anniversary, his two-CD The Woodstock Experience (Columbia/Legacy) packages his taut, 65-minute performance at Yasgur’s farm with his then-new debut LP, Johnny Winter. “Leland Mississippi Blues” is the sole song on both discs. His brother Edgar Winter plays keyboards on three Woodstock tracks.

The nine music videos on “The Robert Cray Collection” (Pearson/Cherry Red) are strong — especially “Nothin’ But A Woman” with its witty animation. Unfortunately, the congenial but repetitive interview snippets are laden with platitudes. Also, the package says the DVD is about 60 minutes long, but it’s really just over 40.

Canada-born, Nashville-based slide guitarist Colin Linden has backed Cassandra Wilson and Alison Krauss among others. His low-key From The Water (True North) takes country blues through its subsequent evolutions. Linden sees “Trouble Only Comes In 3’s” as an impersonation of Peter Lorre doing Ray Charles.

A European cult hero, California native Seasick Steve debuts stateside on rough-hewn Dog House Music (Bronzerat). Early John Lee Hooker sides come to mind on his Tom Waits-ish reminiscences and songs backed by three-string guitar and one-string diddley bow.

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In 1993, Paul Rodgers released two albums that paid tribute to his influences. The first was his Grammy-nominated Muddy Waters Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters. The album featured a Who’s Who of guitarists appearing as Rodgers’ guests. Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, David Gilmour, Brian May, Gary Moore, Brian Setzer, Richie Sambora, Slash, Steve Miller and Trevor Rabin all contributed to the album while Rodgers wrote the title track “Muddy Water Blues.”

Rodgers also recorded a live album titled The Hendrix Set that paid homage to the world’s most innovative guitarist.

“I still put some Hendrix in my solo set,” Rodgers admits. “Hendrix was fantastic. Doing his songs really showed me just how special they were. I can step right into songs like ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and ‘Little Wing.’ I tag ‘Angel’ onto the end of ‘Little Wing,’ and it is almost like it is supposed to be there.”
Rodgers confesses there is one more artist that he would like to pay homage to.

“One day, I would like to do the same thing for Otis Redding, but I don’t find myself worthy. I hold Otis in such high esteem. He got me through my early teenage years of emotional angst. I believe that I am following in a lot of great people’s footsteps. Otis is number one, but there is also Aretha, Sam Moore, the Four Tops, James Brown, Albert King, BB King, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James. I absorbed what they did when I was young, and now their influences come out in what I do.”

Rodgers actually shared the stage with one of his heroes at the Led Zeppelin reunion show in London. After performing two songs on the main stage, Rodgers played “We Shall Be Free” on a B stage with Sam Moore from Sam & Dave, making Rodgers the only artist to perform twice that historic evening. Rodgers proudly professes, “Sam is a hero of mine, and I’m still learning from him.”

In 2004, Rodgers was invited to close the first Annual U.K. Music Hall of Fame Awards show with “All Right Now.” Having just played the song on “The Strat Pack” DVD, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster, with Brian May, Rodgers called May to see about performing the song again at the awards show.

Rodgers found out that Queen was among the inductees that night, and that if Rodgers would return the favor, then Queen could perform live, too. They performed “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” and followed with a hair-raising rendition of “All Right Now.” The creative sparks were palpable; the next logical step was to do more.

Queen + Paul Rodgers have, to date, completed two massive tours and released a live CD/DVD, Return of the Champions in 2005 and a studio CD of new songs titled The Cosmos Rocks in 2008.

On working with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, Rodgers says, “They are fabulous musicians. That little spark has taken us around the world twice and into doing a brand new album. Doing a new album is something that Queen have not attempted since Freddie [Mercury] passed. I think that, in itself, is a fantastic achievement. I am really proud of what we did together.”

Rodgers and May shared bass duties on the album.

While The Cosmos Rocks has charted across the world, there has been no major push by the record company in America.

“A lot of this business is marketing,” says Rodgers. “There is a lot of fantastic talent out there that some will never know