"For more than fifty years the blues and the singers who sang them were nearly forgotten. Not until Samuel Charters published his seminal The Country Blues in 1959 did a new wave of interest in this great American musical form take root.".

"As new audiences were learning about the blues through his records and books, they were also seeing the blues through the photos of his wife, Ann Charters. Although better known today as a Beat scholar, biographer of Jack Kerouac, and anthologist of short fiction, she was for years on the other side of the microphones with her camera. This book is a collection of her blues portraits, along with some by her husband of singers she didn't have the chance to meet.

The photographs were used on record covers, on book jackets, and to illustrate books and articles. Some have never before been published. Blues Faces gathers this rich harvest for the first time, with Sam Charters adding a warmly personal commentary that complements the images and completes this fascinating portrait of a vital musical style."--BOOK JACKET.