Synopsis
In this autobiographical account, Adam Gussow--a white literature student and blues harmonica player--reflects on his discovery of blues music and his experience playing and touring with blues guitarist Sterling Magee, or "Mister Satan." In the 1980s, "Adam and Satan" played blues in the streets of Harlem, New York during a time of increasing racial conflict. The two would eventually travel around the U.S. and Europe, even making an appearance in the 1988 documentary film "Rattle and Hum", starring U2.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-11-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 402 pages | | Height: | 10.0 in | | Width: | 6.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 27.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
A raw, heartfelt memoir of an unlikely collaboration between an earnest young harmonica player and a charismatic, streetwise Harlem musician. Adam Gussow, shattered by failed love at twenty-seven, dedicated himself to blues music in an act of creative desperation. When he met Nat Riddles ("harmonica-man for all occasions"), he got what he was longing for: initiation into the New York "harp"-playing demimonde and a headlong plunge into a Dionysian lifestyle that ended when Riddles' near-murder and flight compelled Adam to find a different mentor. Mister Satan was that man. Born Sterling Magee in Mississippi, Satan played guitar and various percussion instruments simultaneously, ferociously. He was also a soapbox preacher and environmental philosopher, an African-American genius of Shakespearean immensity. Defying cultural and generational divides, Adam and Mister Satan become fellow street musicians, would-be racial redeemers, and, eventually, an acclaimed performing duo. This is their remarkable story: at once the author's own coming of age and his account of the vicissitudes and tenacity of a friendship realized through a shared love of the blues.
Industry Reviews
"...beneath the effusive and effervescent tone of "Mister Satan's Apprentice" lie gnawing questions of race and identity, of cultural imperialism and human connection. And precisely because Gussow stays close to his story, with all its eccentricity and youthful abandon, he arrives at a kind of profundity that eludes many more serious scholars and commentators."
Washington Post Book World - Samuel G. Freedman (11/22/1998)
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