Hiawatha is a beautiful, richly detailed poem of Native Americans before the treahery of the white man overwhelmed their way of life. Susan Jeffers took each verse and created a breathtaking, artist's view of the young Hiawatha. Each verse becomes vibrantly alive with her delicate rendiions."By the shores of ..." and Nokomis fill the readers souls with new images because of the renderings made by the talented Susan Jeffers.

Susan Jeffers' drawings exemplify the clarity and imagination of Longfellow's epic poem to a tee. A must have for every child's library, hopefully to be read over and over again.

I have this poem memorized because my father recited it to me so many times as a child. This illustrated version has beautiful pictures that capture the fact that this is the story of child and embody the lyric quality of Longfellows poem.

This alphabetically arranged Lexicon helps readers to make sense of the dizzying list of blues artists who have contributed to thise body of music. The book is fairly broad and includes many crossover type bands (blues derivation of Rock, for example), with a brief history and list of essential recordings from each artist.

I expected the book to be somewhat more "readable" rather than a catalogue of artists; however, it is useful as the latter. You will not be disappointed with the volume, and you will probably pull it out frequently when shopping for blues music, reviewing artists heard on public radio's blues shows, or when browsing the internet for non-copyrighted blues recordings (many of the oldest recordings are in public domain).

The price also makes it worthwhile. If it guides you toward a single, more satisfying blues recording (or helps you avoid a single stinker), then it's paid for itself.

I must say that I do not know a whole lot about what makes a good blues cd/album. Well for people like me or people wnating to find out more information about this very popular music form one should this source in question, i.e., All Music Guide to the Blues: The Experts' Guide to the Best Blues Recordings (2nd Ed)
by Michael Erlewine (Editor), et al . In here one will find the biographies of more then 965 blues artists, reviews of recordings historical essays. Highly Recommended,

this book it's very well written. Got lots of essays on every blues styles and sub-styles, very well written too. Got lots of music maps for almost all of the essays, very well traced. Got lots of helpful and factfiled info about each entry, and a very helpful and great reviews on each artist albums...nothing to tell more about it. Here you learn a little about blues history, you learn about the blues records and wich ones do you chose, and the artists bios...

I found this book good when trying to fine an album, but disappointing because it shows albums which are not in print (sometimes not even explaining that the album is unavailable). The reviews are inconsistant because of the many critics. Also the star rating I found to be very confusing. The artist profiles are interesting and informative. The charts for each specific instrument are also interesting. I wish the personnel was identified for each album, then indexed like the Penguin Guide, which is a better quality publication when it comes to jazz CD guides. Overall good reading and a decent resource when looking for an album.

This book, in all three of its editions, has been a constant companion on record and CD hunts with me. Not only is the third edition far more thorough than in the past, it also serves as an excellent place to keep track of what I've got in my collection. Given the constant repackaging of recordings, it's been my misfortune in the past to double up on recordings more than once. Not any more! Informative, deeply researched, and backed up by an online service that adds new releases, the "All Music Guide to Jazz" is an indispensable resource. Now, if they could only convince the record execs to release (or re-release) everything that's out-of-print on CD, I'd be very happy indeed. You can't go wrong with this book!

I wore out my copy of the AMG during the Ken Burns telecasts for a good reason. This book provides the best capsule overviews of jazz artists and their recordings, both for the famous and the obscure. Some artists have CD catalogs so big that it takes a book such as this to get a handle on their music. While a book of this kind tends to get outdated very quickly because so many CDs go in and out of print all the time, it is useful in finding that one recording which can give you the essence of the artist and where to go next. Some of the critics have a tendency to be repetitive or gushing but for a book of this size and scope, they do a good job on the whole. I'm eagerly awaiting the next edition of this book, which is probably the best version of all of the AMGs.

Its well written but its a waste of money if you know about the site verion of All Music Guide which really is one of the best sites on the internet.Not only does the site version have everything the book does and has pictures but also the lists of artists,albums,music styles and reviews are seemingly endless and gloriously delightful.

I wish the word "comprehensive" wasn't used on the cover of this book because it isn't comprehensive. Some groups, that weren't obscure in their time at least, aren't here. And many of the groups that are here don't have all their albums reviewed. They may have a review of a group's "Greatest Hits CD" and that's it. This book has 5 star reviews of music I think sounds awful and 2 star reviews of music I think sounds good, so it's all in the ear of the listener. As a guide it's good, but I'll bet you haven't heard of half the groups here, so if you buy something by one of these groups based on the review, don't be shocked if it doesn't sound as good as you were led to believe. Also, if you hear something by a group you like but aren't familiar with and want to buy some of their music you may not see it all listed here. They could at least tell you all album titles a group had. Still, it's one of the best guides I've seen, I'm not sorry I got it, and actually recommend it.

The All Music Guide to Rock is exactly what it claims to be. The sheer breadth of artists covered is staggering for one volume; though that may be the book's downfall. Some reviews, for space reasons, are too short to gain a clear insight into the album/artist, and often albums are skipped over because the editors deem them insignificant. However, this is a minor oversight. Nearly every artist you could possibly think of is in this book, complete with reviews of their albums, bios, and other extremely useful info. Once you start reading, you'll want to explore all 1000-plus pages. Buy this book - you'll still be reading it years from now.

I've been listening to country music for more than four decades, plus recently brushing up on music history while researching Faron Young's life. This book contains much good information, but I wonder how the writers define "country." In spite of all their hits, the Wilburn Brothers rate a two-inch column and David Houston gets three inches. Yet many, many performers I've never heard of (and non-country ones I have heard of) get a page or more. How often has Grateful Dead ever been played on a country station? Faron Young--a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame--is allotted one page, but Neil Young gets six. How many times did he appear on the country charts? None that I recall. Even the historical Carter Family is limited to two pages. There would have been room to give more information about more performers if the book had fulfilled the promise of its title.

I'm a big fan of this series, which is prized among buffs for its reliable and informative album ratings. This volume gets big points for unusually inclusive coverage, which makes sense for the "big tent" that is country music. We get everything from rockabilly to country-oriented rock acts to straight-up honky tonk. Also, you get good coverage of some fairly obscure artists (finally, Michael Hurley in a reference book!).

Complaints? I've got a few. The editing in this volume is not up to the series' usual standards. Some of the biographical sketches are sloppily written and some artists seem to have been left out unintentially (for example, Area Code 615 is mentioned many times in the text, but doesn't get an entry). Also, as long as I'm complaining, some of the decisions about who to include are a little loopy -- the Greatful Dead but not John Prine? And music reference books go stale fast -- the latest entries in this one are from mid 1996, so a new edition is called for.

With all that said, I spent half the night reading through this one, promising myself that I'd go to sleep after I read just one more entry... If you're anything more than the most casual country fan, you need this book.

Books like this make know-it-alls like me shudder: now everyone can have decades worth of hard-won musical knowledge at their fingertips, for just a few bucks. Hardly seems fair. Highly recommended.

Excellent descriptions and partition. Good idea are the individual lists of instruments showing the main artists of these instruments and the style of music they play.

An improvement would be to show all artists which appear on each CD.

I am eagerly waiting for the third edition.

They did a pretty decent job. Some problems crop up, however, as there are errors throughout the book on specific bands that even the casual fan would catch. Hey, I'm not a fan of all these bands, but I caught most of the errors. There are also proof reading errors throughout the book.

These points aside, most of the reviews are fairly well written and informed. Whether or not you agree with the opinions expressed, the authors generally have solid reasoning for their comments. Still, one could wish for better accuracy for a book that is supposedly so comphrensive.

Hey guys, if you're looking for an additional writer I'm available!

This is a good book but the guides to jazz, rock, and blues are much better and more complete. Also, the classical section is rather skimpy.

This book needs no review. Buy it