Billy Boy Arnold has been playing Chicago blues for just about as long as the genre has existed, with a recording and performing career that spans over seventy years. His newly published autobiography, The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold—hailed by Library Journal as a “lively, illuminating memoir essential to anyone interested in blues and the origins of rock and roll” and praised by Grammy winners Eric Clapton and Elijah Wald—tells his singular story with heart, humor, and grit. To help bring to life the book’s musical world, we’ve put together a playlist featuring some of Billy Boy Arnold’s most essential tracks, alongside music that inspired him and that he inspired in turn.
The Blues Dream of Billy Boy Arnold is available now on our website or from your favorite bookseller.