American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966 [DVD]

This series originally came out during the Year Of The Blues (2003) and provided us with glimpses of the real originals in this genre. The first three volumes gave us a lot of wonderful clips of Wolf, Sonny Boy, Memphis Slim, Otis Rush, Muddy, T-Bone, Big Mamma, Lonnie Johnson and so on. The German settings were a bit sterile and often staged to look like a Juke or with strange back drops of urban America. This set, from 1963-1966, is more like a concert. And it's great!The concert format with an appreciative audience is really fantastic and well done for the time. We see Sonny Boy Williamson in three performances with the harp in his mouth sideways and playing with his NOSE! He is cool, no wonder he taught Little Walter (whose only recorded performance is in Vol. 3 of this series!).We also see Hubert Sumlin play with Sonny Boy on his second offering in this show. He turns in one of his most unusual solos in "Getting Out Of Town"- very chromatic and almost jazzy! We see Muddy as a stand up singer (no guitar), on "Mojo" and in two bonus performances. He has Matt "Guitar" Murphy playing behind him on this one (who was playing with Memphis Slim at the time). There is a rare look at the great Lonnie Johnson, who plays by himself and shows us why he is one of the original inventors of the Urban Blues guitar style. Big Joe Williams gives us a close up view of his famous nine string guitar.Lightnin' Hopkins plays his distinctive Texas-style acoustic blues, with a few tricks on the fretboard as well. Howlin' Wolf puts in, to me, his best ever filmed performance-it's worth the price of the whole thing!!! He does an update of "Smokestack Lightning" (without its famous riff) and "Don't Laugh At Me" in a "Killing Floor" groove, a song which had just been recorded. And we also see a young Hubert Sumlin playing with Wolf and also with Sugar Pie Desanto's female input (these shows always had at least one female performer). Big Joe Turner does his usual big voiced thing and he has Otis Rush on lead guitar, it's a fantastic performance, one of the best insight's into Otis's guitar style we've seen. A bonus in this tune is that we see maybe the only existing footage of pianist Little Brother Montgomery who wrote "The First Time I met the Blues" and "I Can't Keep From Crying"-this is a rarity. Also scarce is film of drummer Fred Below, who gave the beat to Chess Records. Fred plays on this tune and in Junior Well's section. Junior Wells is in his James Brown groove (he always did this! In Australia in 1991 when I saw him he led off with "I Feel Good"). He does Ray Charles'"What'D I Say" in a JB style, but we hear no harp! Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one of the first US Blues/Gospel acts to crack the UK, finishes the set with two of the bonus tracks. They are superb as is Muddy Waters' two bonus tracks staged and filmed at a railway station-very effective. His slide playing (standing up) is another extremely rare view of Muddy.This is one of the most historic releases for urban blues yet available. The sound has been remixed by Eddie Kramer (of Jimi Hendrix fame) and Reelin' In The Years Productions have done it again! I hope they can find more of these rarities soon. We need the Fillmore Concerts that were on PBS in the late sixities. Get this for your Blues collection and check the price, what a bargain!

Outstanding Blues from beginning to the end !!!! You get 14 great songs, plus 4 more as bonus tracks, totaling 18 songs. Plus, you get a great 18 page illustrated booklet, that provides more information about these Blues Artists & this DVD.The songs are as follows:1. Sonny Boy Williamson - Keep it to Yourself2. Muddy Waters - Got my MoJo Working3. Lonnie Johnson - Too late to Cry4. Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go ( Aerosmith did a cover of thisincluded in their "Honkin on Bobo" CD.5. Sonny Boy Williamson - Bye Bye Bird6. Getting out of town7. Lightin' Hopkins - Come Go With Me8. Lightin's Blues9. Sugar Pie Desanto - Baby What You Want Me to Do10.Rock me Baby11.Howlin'Wolf - Smokestack Lighting12.Don't Laugh at Me13.Big Joe Turner - Oh Well , Oh Well14.Junior Wells - What I'd SayBonus Tracks:15.Muddy Waters - You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had16.Blow Wind Blow17.Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain18.Trouble in MindThese performances were very well performed, very well produced, and very well filmed and recorded. Also, you get other blues musicians in this DVD, that performed as background musicians. These include: Otis Rush, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixson and others. This is a "must-have" for any serious blues fan. This is a great DVD, and I highly recommend it. Thanks!!!

Dear peoples Janie Hendrix has done it again dad gummit. This one may be my favorite inb the 4 disc series as it's shot in a very simple concert setting for mid 60s UK audience. The bonus cuts have the kinda korny back drop (rail platform) but it is effective & nicely done. My faves in the set are that little Philipino fire cracker aka Sugar Pie DeSanto. It's a kick to watch her growl in front of the massive dog house slapper Willie Dixon. This is a stellar band which also features the apt guitar work of Hubert Sumlin. The other "eye opener" in this set is Sister Rosetta Tharpe....ooooweee!this gal could wail on vcls & geetar. Other noteworth items is the backing group also has the Zenmaster of the 88s Mr Otis Span, drummer Clifton James. The wizzard of the harp, Mr Sonny Boy Williamson (plays with his nose!). Performance by Junior Wells doing his best James Brown (awesome), Otis Rush backing Big Joe Turner on some nice jump blues, & some nice delta picking by Lightning Hopkins & Big Joe Williams....it truly is my kind of festivus.

If your clicking on this disc I'll assume you like old time blues or it has been recommended to you to check out. I selected this particular AFBF disc over others as other reviewers had mentioned that this presented the musicians in a live concert type medium rather than a soundstage type. I like little bits and pieces of a lot of different musicians vs. buying a lot of discs of just one musician or group with rare exception. This disc offers a nice little taste of the various musicians listed. I find there is next to no super prints/transfers of older musicians so if your going to complain about that sort of thing just listen to the cd. However I will say that the print was very viewable and enjoyable for me to watch and the price was reasonable. Great addition to my collection. The disc arrived on time and undamaged.--- P.S. I really dug Howlin Wolf knockin it down.

Excellent DVD, a must have for blues maniacs, this one fits nicely in my collection and is very inspiring seeing all these natural talents in their prime, performing at their very best in front of completely awestruck crowd.BTW the first and fourth DVD in that AFBF pack are the 2 best ones.

Este dvd es un tesoro. Contiene raras grabaciones de leyendas de Blues. Una visita obligada para todos los amantes del Blues.

リージョン１だったので心配していましたが、家のデッキで普通に観ることができました。いつぞやタワーレコードの店員さんから、「うちで売っているものは、日本のデッキで必ず観ることができます」と聞いていたので、安心はしていましたが。それで、内容についてですが、英国ツアーのせいか、観客はかなりおとなしめで、出演者もアメリカ本国で見せるパフォーマンスとはかなり様子が異なります。まあそれでも、サニー・ボーイなんかはそのよそよそしさが逆にチャップリンが演じる貧乏貴族を連想させたりもして、これはこれで楽しめます。マディの畏怖堂々たる佇まいも一見の価値があります。

最高‼動いちゃてるよ(@_@)リアルタイム満喫！

Superb.