Bruce Bastin

Bruce Bastin (born 19 September 1939 in Chelmsford, Essex, England) is an English folklorist and a leading expert on the blues styles of the South Eastern states of America (East Coast Blues or Piedmont Blues).

He is responsible for much ground-breaking research (much done initially with folklorist Peter B. Lowry) over the decades.

A former secondary school geography teacher, Bastin holds a master's degree in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the author of two books on the Piedmont Blues, Crying for the Carolines andRed River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast, as well as a biography of music publisher Joe Davis, Never Sell a Copyright. He has written articles for many music journals and books over the decades, plus liner note essays for LPs and CDs, not all dealing with the South Eastern blues style.

Bruce Bastin is also the managing director of Interstate Music, Ltd., West Sussex, England, with its labels:

• Country Routes
• Flyright
• Harlequin
• Heritage
• Krazy Kat
• Magpie
• Travelin' Man.

for whom he has produced and/or programmed albums in many musical genres, generally re-issue in nature.

• Bastin, Bruce (1971) Crying for the Carolines (London: Studio Vista). ISBN 978-0-289-70209-3.
• Bastin, Bruce (1986/1995) Red River Blues: The Blues Tradition in the Southeast (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). ISBN 0-252-06521-2, ISBN 978-0-252-06521-7
• Bastin, Bruce "Blind Boy Fuller" in Grossman, Stefan & Fuller, Blind Boy Stefan Grossman's early masters of American blues guitar: Blind Boy Fuller, Alfred Music Publishing, 1993 ISBN 0-7390-4331-5, ISBN 978-0-7390-4331-8
• Bastin, Bruce "Truckin' My Blues Away - East Coast Piedmont Styles" in Lawrence Cohn, ed. (1993). Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians. Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.), pp. 205 – 231. ISBN 1-55859-271-7.