State of the Blues is photographer Jeff Dunas’s stirring tribute to the power of the blues, an American tradition that has its roots in the Mississippi Delta and branches that have spread around the world. One of the most vital early expressions of African-American culture, the blues makes poetry of sorrow and finds humor and bitter irony in the hardships of life. It tells of loves lost and regained, and of the fight for dignity in a world that judges people by the color of their skin. Alongside a series of intimate portraits of the greatest blues performers of our time–including B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Charlie Musselwhite, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many others–the book presents Dunas’s timeless photographs of the landmarks and byways of the Blues Highway, a heritage trail through the American South that leads from New Orleans to Chicago, where the blues continues to thrive today.“The Blues is the roots of all music. It’s the roots… Blues has been here since the world was born. Once there was women and men loving each other and breaking up, that’s the blues.” –John Lee Hooker, from the Preface