Robert Johnson is the most important blues musician who ever
lived. I have never found anything more deeply soulful. His music
remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the
human voice. - Eric ClaptonRobert Johnson is arguably the most
well known figure in the history of the blues. In this 3 DVD set,
with over 5 hours and 52 minutes of instruction, Tom Feldmann
covers every aspect of Johnson's playing. Each song is performed
by Feldmann before he dissects the arrangement verse-by-verse and
ends with a split screen segment where the song is played slowly
with close up s of both the left and right hands. This is the
most expansive look into the guitar playing of Robert Johnson
produced in video form.DVD One: STANDARD TUNING: Kind Hearted
Woman, Phonograph Blues, 32-20 Blues, A Blues Variations (Dead
Shrimp Blues, Little Queen of Spades, Honeymoon Blues), I'm a
Steady Rolling Man, Sweet Home Chicago, Love In Vain, From Four
'Til Late DROP D TUNING: Malted Milk CROSS NOTE TUNING: Hellhound
on my TrailDVD Two: SPANISH TUNING: Stop Breakin' Down Blues,
Variations for Terrane Blues and Milkcow Blues, Walking Blues,
Come On In My Kitchen, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Stones In My
Passway, Cross Road Blues, Traveling Riverside BluesDVD Three:
SPANISH TUNING: If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, VESTAPOL
TUNING (OPEN E TUNING): Rambling on my Mind, I Believe I'll Dust
My Broom, Preaching Blues, STANDARD TUNING: They're Red Hot. DVD
is region 0, playable worldwide.
Review
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Over the intervening decades since Robert Johnson cut his 29
monolithic sides in 1936 and 1937, countless manhours have been
spent by countless guitarists hunched over spinning 78s, then
LPs, then CDs, and now spinless MP3s, desperately trying to latch
onto the mystical powers inherent in those songs - in that sound
- which launched as many legions of rockers as of bluesmen. With
Johnson's direct apostles below ground - Robert Lockwood,
Honeyboy Edwards, Johnny Shines (who thrice returns, via bonus
performance footage) - Tom Feldmann is your best possible
instructor. The country blues junkie has put in those countless
hours intensively detailing everything from the lemon squeezing
Traveling Riverside Blues to the tamale-peddling They're Red Hot
- so that you don't have to. He's got the complete canon down
cold (come on, both takes of Cross Road Blues get dissected
here). Right down to that spine-tingling 'howling wind' slide
lick dripping down Come On in My Kitchen. Even down to that
momentary flash of wickedness in the fourth verse of Walking
Blues when string bends actually snap. With calm coaching, you'll
run the existential table from the Son House knockoff of
Preaching Blues to Hellhound on My Trail, with a Malted Milk
break in between. Besides using the slo-mo split-screen, Feldmann
makes learning easier by wisely corralling similar pieces, as
when taking advantage of the structural relationship between
Terrane Blues and Milkcow's Calf Blues with Stones in My
Passway. Tremendous clout resides within three how-to DVDs, for
herein lie both the kindling and the spark which lit the
firestorm of modern blues and rock. So the calculus is simple:
Six hours of one-on-one Robert Johnson instruction equals
essential. --Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag