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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
bluesman comes home, 17 May 2003
I just bought this DVD and I have to say I was impressed. It's true you can find Eric Clapton's more highly charged blues performances elsewhere, but that might be to miss the point of this collection.The film quality is excellent, for a start, which is more than you can say for some of the video recordings I bought in the past. Rather than a barrage of image and hype, beloved by those who prefer to be told what to think and feel, the atmosphere is restrained and intimate, which means one is free to observe. Maybe this is more challenging, but there's still a lot to see. For a guitarist, it's a real pleasure to be able to see even the settings on the Vibro Kings and watch up close the fingerings and voicings on the guitar. Nothing is left out.. the guys play their stuff and you take it all in.. I really thought it was beautiful. For example, I was curious as to how his version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow would come out. The answer is that because he's a real musician, someone who really did devote their life to their craft through better or worse, he can't go wrong.. it doesn't sound like something short of Judy Garland or Eva Cassidy, it comes out with his personality streaked through it. And it shows he could play anything he wanted to, any kind of music, and it would still be fresh. He's not pinned to any one style, he has his own, and somehow it works no matter what. This is a subtle, impressive collection, and I really enjoyed it. If you'd like to feel that someone as dedicated as Clapton really did think the long journey was all worthwhile, have a listen to it. It has a reassuring peace about it, and that isn't how too many such careers end up, which gives it a certain authority as well. It may not be for everyone, but I guarantee that if you feel it's not wild or hard enough, listen again in a few years, and you may find there's a band of emotion in it which finds resonance in a deeper maturity. This is the music of someone who might have lived a difficult life, but who put their feelings into music, not for a quick buck, but because that was the way their soul worked. So to see him come through the traumas that produced "Layla" and "Tears in Heaven" and edge towards the end of such a career and still play fine, thoughtful, powerful and moving music is a triumph one feels happy to partake in. It's not just a musical triumph, but one for the soul as well. Amidst all the bloated, greedy, crass and mindless trauma of modern "music", I think this is one recording genuinely worth having.
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