216 pages, paperback, measures approx. 9” x 9” 

In addition to being the world’s #1 authority on “Mad Music and Crazy Comedy”, Dr. Demento is also a highly respected musicologist and blues historian. His first book, "Rhino's Cruise Through The Blues", was written under his "real" name, Barry Hansen. 

Published twenty years ago and long since out of print, final remaining copies are available here while supplies last—each personally autographed twice! Signed “Dr. Demento” on the flyleaf and "Barry Hansen" on the title page.

A few words from the Doctor:

"I've been a huge blues fan since I was in my teens," says the Doctor. "In fact I was a blues buff long before the Dr. Demento Show was ever thought of. This book is intended as an introduction to blues. It tells the whole story from the origins of blues around 1900 all the way to recent stars like Jonny Lang and Susan Tedeschi. B. B. King is in there, of course (in fact he wrote the foreword)... and Eric Clapton, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf — all the great ones and the forgotten ones too. I hope that the book will open a lot of people's eyes and ears to some of the finest artists and human beings the planet has ever known." 

Hansen became an avid blues buff in the mid-1950s, after finding a few blues discs in local used record shops and discovering nightly blues shows on Southern AM stations. His very first magazine articles, in 1958, were about new records by Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. He continued writing about blues through his college years, and eventually wrote his master's thesis at UCLA about the evolution of blues in the 1940s and 1950s. That led to a full-time position at Specialty Records, where Hansen compiled 35 reissue albums of blues and gospel music.

It was while Hansen was working at Specialty that the Dr. Demento Show was born in 1970. The radio show was just a lark at first. Little did Hansen or anyone else know that within a few years the radio show's national popularity would thoroughly rearrange his life. He continued to enjoy and study blues, though, and when Rhino Entertainment asked if he'd like to write a blues book, he jumped at the chance, and worked on it for several years.

"A lot of people who don't know blues well think that it's depressing music," says Hansen. "Actually it's just the opposite. No matter how bad a mood you may be in, listening to some really good blues will put you in a better one. That's what it's for. The people who invented blues needed something to lift their spirits. It worked for them and it can work for everybody.”  —Barry Hansen (aka Dr. Demento)

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From the Publisher:

The book starts deep in the Delta to explore the history of the blues, spotlighting landmark musicians, recordings and happenings along the way. Blues greats covered here include Leadbelly, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughan and dozens more. The book also explores the social and cultural mores of the blues, the impact of American history, and why the blues is such an influential and seemingly immortal genre. Published in cooperation with Rhino Records, it includes beautiful full-color pages throughout, with rare photos of players, album covers, record labels and more.

Rhino's Cruise Through the Blues features a foreword by B.B. King. 

Here is an excerpt: 

"Blues is much more than the music. The blues has been a way of life, because it’s all about our feeling about the people, places, and things we’ve known. The blues started with the slaves and their disciples and led on in to me; now I’m one of the disciples. I find a lot of joy in it. I’ve played blues clubs from Japan to Russia, and I’ve seen a lot of young people in the audience. The young people are playing the blues today. It’s popular all over the world. There’s nothing like it.” — B.B. King

About the Author:

Barry Hansen, best known as radio’s Dr. Demento, is a respected musicologist and blues specialist. Hansen assembled 35 vintage blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll albums for Specialty Records, and annotated a Blues Masters Sampler for Rhino Records. He has written numerous liner notes, and contributed two chapters to The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.