Not to be confused with Blue Guitars (Stephen Bishop album).
2005 box set by Chris Rea
Blue Guitars
Box set by
Chris Rea
Released
14 October 2005
Recorded
2004–2005
Genre
Blues
Length
614:42 (box set) 97:00 (2CD)
Label
Jazzee Blue & Edel Records
Producer
Chris Rea, Andy Wilman
Chris Rea chronology
The Blue Jukebox (2004)
Blue Guitars (2005)
Heartbeats (2005)
Blue Guitars is the twenty-first studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released on 14 October 2005 by his independent record label Jazzee Blue and Edel Records.[1][2] The Blue Guitars album, packaged as a box set in the style of an earbook,[1] consists of eleven CDs, one DVD and a full colour book, including paintings by the artist, liner notes and song lyrics.[1] It is an ambitious project about blues music with the 137 songs recorded over the course of 18 months with a work schedule—according to Rea himself—of twelve hours a day, seven days a week.[3][4] 2007 saw the release of a 2-CD "best of" compilation Blue Guitars: A Collection of Songs,[5] which with individual albums can be also found in digital format.[6]
Initially the project was inspired by Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey and can be called an "odyssey" in its own right,[4] for depicting a journey through the various epochs of blues music, starting at its African origins, then going through various American regional variations, different styles including Celtic & Irish and finishing with modern-time blues from the 1960s and 1970s.[3][4][7][8]
According to De Standaard's review, it should be considered as Rea's "magnum opus".[9] The earbook album sold over 150,000 copies in Europe,[10] and 170,000 until 2017.[11] Several live exhibitions of the album's artwork paintings were held, like in October 2005 at The Cork Street Gallery, Central London, England,[1] and Spazio Oikos, Milan, Italy.[3]
^ abcd"Chris Rea's come-back". BBC News. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
^"Chris Rea – Blue Guitars". Discogs. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
^ abcCruccu Matteo (27 October 2005). "La sfida titanica di Chris Rea: "Ho rifatto la storia del blues"". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 31 March 2015.
^ abcChristian Schleifer (29 October 2005). ""Blue Guitars" von Chris Rea: 11 neue Alben!" (in German). Krone. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
^"Chris Rea – (Blue Guitars) - A Collection Of Songs -". Discogs. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
^"Chris Rea on Apple Music". Apple Music. Apple Inc. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
^Mark Edwards (30 October 2005). "Chris Rea: Blue Guitars". The Times. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
^Gentile, Enzo (26 February 2006). "Chris Rea Un sogno chiamato blues" [Chris Rea, a dream called blues]. la Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 24 December 2020.
^Michiels, Karel (29 October 2005). "Chris Rea. Blue Guitars: De geschiedenis van de blues in 11 cd's" [Chris Rea. Blue Guitars: The history of the blues in 11 CDs]. De Standaard (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 December 2020.
^"earBOOKS 2014/15 Complete Catalogue" (PDF). Edel Germany GmbH earBOOKS. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
^David Mead (15 June 2016). "Chris Rea on his guitar origins, Strats, the blues and La Passione". MusicRadar. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
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