The American Folk Blues Festival 1962 - 1969 [DVD] [US Import] [NTSC]

I have been collecting the audio discs of "The American Folk Blues Festival" for many years with great anticipation that the mythic video documents would someday be released. Happily those and some new performances are included on this DVD output along with the others in the series. The performances are absolute gems. This disc is a mix of studio and live performances that are so great they bring a tear of joy to my eye. Most of the performers were so rarely filmed that it is a real delight to see them perform. The set list is identified above, but it is worthy of note that the musicians backing up the "A" list track artists are a who's who of blues legends.

I can't pick a favorite cut as they are all wonderful, but to see Otis Rush backing Big Joe Turner, or the ultra rare filmed appearance of Little Walter blowing harp for Hound Dog Taylor (four years before Hound Dog's stellar Alligator debut incidentally), or Buddy Guy's super cool reading of "Out Of Site", or the main man, T-Bone Walker, backing Helen Humes, etc. is a treat beyond explanation. The amazing Earl Hooker and Muddy Waters are bonus track features with Paul Oscher making a very cool appearance on "Got My Mojo Working." Run time is about an hour on this disc.

If you are a fan of music, especially blues, then you need this three volume DVD set, now.

Mighty good stuff is to be found here. Big Mama Thornton gives a (typically) charasmatic performance of the original "Hound Dog" (yes folks, she recorded it before Elvis). Dr. Isaiah Ross performs as a "one man band" on harmonica, guital, AND drums and aside from the novelty, he actually sounds good!

Hound Dog Tayor performs with his band and the only footage of Little Walter Jacobs (who was killed in a street fight some moths later) has him blowing his harmonica in support. Taylor sounds a lot like Elmore James. Not bad, but Jacobs and Koko Taylor (a young Miss Taylor also sings "Wang Dang Doodle" with this group) did not think highly of Hound Dog Taylor's playing. (Sounds fine to me).

Old time Mississippi country blues is represented by Son House (who inspired Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson), Skip James, and B.B. King's cousin Booker (Bukka) White. Deciphering these guys requires some earstrain. I'm a black South Carolinian and even I had difficulty with their thick Mississippi Delta drawls.

The very-appealing Helen Humes closes things with the whole gang in a rousing number that ends with a Black juke joint audience getting up to do the twist while the players jam on into the night. The sister with the blonde wig who "works it" in the middle of the floor steals the show!

Best of all is the bonus footage with the Muddy Waters band where Paul Oscher REALLY goes to town on his harmonica on "Got My Mojo Working."

In the 1960s, Black American pop and Soul singers occasionally appeared on American television, but the blues was considered too crude for a mass audience at the time. Good thing the Europeans had the foresight to preserve these wonderful performers who were as exciting on film as they were on record.

The third volume in the "American Folk Blues Festival" DVD series includes a few more acoustic numbers than the two previous issues, thanks to Danish television who picked up the ball when "Jazz Gehrt und Gesehen" didn't want to tape the 1967 tour.

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee get an entire little three-song set which includes "Stranger Blues" and a "Kansas City"-ripoff titled "Gonna Move Across The River". Nehemia "Skip" James gets two songs, Bukka White growls his way through a five-minute "Got Sick And Tired", and the great Son House does a slow but stately and very somber rendition of his famous "Death Letter".

Big Mama Thornton's powerful rendition of "Hound Dog" is another highlight (she actually makes Presley's version seem mildly embarrasing by comparison), as is Buddy Guy's rarely heard performance of "Out Of Sight", a swinging, soulful number which part of the audience apparently felt was too "modern" and not bluesy enough.
And this DVD includes the only known footage of Little Walter Jacobs performing. He cuts a dashing figure, lean and mean in his dark suit as he blows his harp behind the towering Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor on one of the best songs on the disc, Hound Dog's sizzling boogie "Wild About You".

Accordingly to the wonderfully informative and well-written booklet, Walter was in fact less than happy with Hound Dog, who also plays rhythm guitar for Koko Taylor's equally impressive performance of "Wang Dang Doodle":
"-He ain't no use at all - damn southern coon! How can I do what I want when that's how I'm fixed up?" Jacobs raged, referring to Hound Dog Taylor's inability to provide the kind of subtle, jazzy backup that he (Walter) was used to hearing from his usual guitarists.
"-Hound Dog couldn't accompany nobody but himself", Koko Taylor agreed when asked about Walter's comments earlier this year (2004). But while it's obvious that Hound Dog Taylor is no Robert Lockwood, most listeners probably won't even notice what it was that made Walter so upset...Hound Dog's rhythm guitar playing is VERY basic, sure, but not at all unlistenable.

Muddy Waters is here as well, doing the slow "Long Distance Call" and the tougher "Got My Mojo Working", and Big Joe Turner (man, is he big!) does a great, jazz-flavoured "Flip, Flop And Fly".
It's kinda funny to see country bluesmen Terry and McGhee in their short-sleeved shirts performing next to the strikingly urbane, tie-clad Memphis Slim on Helen Humes' "The Blues Ain't Nothing But A Woman", but Walter "Brownie" McGhee, who sings one of the verses, is actually a fine, soulful and quite subtle vocalist.

Anyone who liked the first two volumes should love this superbly annotated third one just as much. Here's hoping for a volume four!

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