Mister Satan's Apprentice by Adam Gussow has been reissued

2009-12-06 13:09:49

Originally published in 1998, my blues memoir, Mister Satan's Apprentice, has just been republished with a new foreword by the University of Minnesota Press. It's the story of a young white blues harmonica player in New York City who teams up with R&B legend Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee" on the streets of Harlem during a period of heightened racial violence (Howard Beach, Bensonhurst) and how the two men forge the unlikeliest of musical partnerships, one that leads to a touring and recording career as "Satan and Adam." I also write about my harmonica mentor, Nat Riddles, and the tragedy that befell him. The book encompasses much of the NYC blues world of the period, including Dan Lynch, an East Village juke joint that helped launch The Holmes Brothers, Popa Chubby, Little Mike and the Tornadoes, Ron Sunshine, Dona Oxford, and other New York blues acts.

Mister Satan's Apprentice received a Keeping the Blues Alive award in literature from the Blues Foundation in Memphis.

If you'd like to order the book, this link will take you to a page that will connect you to both Amazon.com and the University of Minnesota Press: http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/books.html

I've uploaded three video-book previews in which I read passages from the book and back them up with a soundtrack that includes street recordings of both Nat Riddles and Satan & Adam: