Blue Guitars

Not to be confused with Blue Guitars (Stephen Bishop album).

Blue Guitars
Box set by
Chris Rea
Released14 October 2005
Recorded2004–2005
GenreBlues
Length614:42 (box set)
97:00 (2CD)
LabelJazzee Blue & Edel Records
ProducerChris 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]

  1. ^ a b c d "Chris Rea's come-back". BBC News. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Chris Rea – Blue Guitars". Discogs. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Cruccu 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.
  4. ^ a b c Christian Schleifer (29 October 2005). ""Blue Guitars" von Chris Rea: 11 neue Alben!" (in German). Krone. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Chris Rea – (Blue Guitars) - A Collection Of Songs -". Discogs. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Chris Rea on Apple Music". Apple Music. Apple Inc. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  7. ^ Mark Edwards (30 October 2005). "Chris Rea: Blue Guitars". The Times. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "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.
  11. ^ David Mead (15 June 2016). "Chris Rea on his guitar origins, Strats, the blues and La Passione". MusicRadar. Retrieved 10 December 2017.