LATEST AMERICAN FOLK-BLUES FESTIVAL DVD SET FOR MAY RELEASE Historic performances by the aristocracy of American blues, unseen for forty years and never before released, comprise the latest addition to Experience Hendrix/Reelin’ In The Years Productions/Hip-O Records’ The American Folk-Blues Festival DVD series. The British Tours 1963-1966, to be released May 8th, offers 18 complete performances from some of the most iconic blues artists of all time including Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightinin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Turner plus gospel great Sister Rosetta Tharpe. These performances were recorded live and broadcast nationally in Britain and are known to have had a dramatic impact on the rise of the British blues movement and such bands as The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and many others. With superb camera work, fully restored visuals and pristine audio, painstakingly transferred and mastered by legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Woodstock), The American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966 is a document of the work of some of the greatest blues artist of all time, at the very peak of their powers. Zeppelin’s Robert Plant recalled, “I was at these shows in shabby provincial England in the mid-60s. Those eerie voices from another world lit up my life leaving me breathless, spooked and inspired for a lifetime.” Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones commented, “Things would have been a whole lot different in Britain without the American Folk-Blues Festivals; they proved a rich legacy for musicians throughout Europe.” With extensive notes by U.K. author and music historian Mike Rowe who witnessed many of these performances first hand, the set is a remarkable time capsule that captures the artists and music at its very best. Blues aficionados will be delighted to note that musicians backing these headliners include are such notables as Otis Spann, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Clifton James, Bill Stepney, Otis Rush, Little Brother Montgomery, Jack Myers, Fred Below, Cousin Joe Pleasant. With on screen introductions by Memphis Slim and Roosevelt Sykes, The American Folk-Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966 is fitting companion to the previous released Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of The American Blues Festival. The first volume was Grammy® nominated in the long form video category and kicked off the series that has become the biggest selling multi-volume DVD blues collection of all time, eclipsing even the much vaunted Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues series. Tracklist SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON “Keep It To Yourself” (1963) MUDDY WATERS “Got My Mojo Working” (1963) LONNIE JOHNSON “Too Late To Cry” (1963) SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON “Bye Bye Bird” (1964) SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON “Getting Out of Town (1964) LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS “Come Go With Me” (1964) LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS “Lightnin’s Blues” (1964) SUGAR PIE DESANTO “Baby What You Want Me To Do” (1964) HOWLIN’ WOLF “Smokestack Lightning” (1964) HOWLIN’ WOLF “Don’t Laugh At Me” (1964) BIG JOE TURNER “Oh Well, Oh Well” (1966) JUNIOR WELLS “What’d I Say” (1966) MUDDY WATERS “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had” (1964) MUDDY WATERS “Blow Wind Blow” (1964) SISTER ROSETTA THARPE “Didn’t It Rain” (1964) SISTER ROSETTA THARPE “Trouble In Mind” (1964) ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

REVIEWS

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BACKTRACKING
'The American Folk Blues Festival' DVD
highlights classic blues

The British tours series shows greats like Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf and Sister Rosetta Tharpe in action.

By Robert Hilburn, Special to The Los Angeles Times
May 29, 2007

Classic blues is something we've heard a lot more of than seen over the years because there is so little footage of the great early blues musicians. "The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours" DVD series reminds us of what we've been missing.

We not only get to see such vital figures as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sister Rosetta Tharpe on the just-released Volume 4 in the series, but we also see them at a key period in their careers.

Though most of England's young musicians were first turned on to rock by '50s pioneers such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, it was the hard-core blues character and spirit of the artists who performed on the "Festival" tours in the '60s that helped cement the musical commitment of such figures as Eric Clapton, Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones.

"I was at these shows in shabby provincial England in the mid-'60s," the Led Zeppelin singer has said of the "Festival" series. "Those eerie voices from another world lit up my life, leaving me breathless, spooked and inspired for a lifetime."

Various Artists
"The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966"
Hip-O Records
The back story: Watching the 18 performances in the new volume, it's easy to understand the excitement of those tours — and not just on the part of the audiences. Because their careers had largely evaporated in the U.S. by then, the artists themselves seemed thrilled by the enthusiastic reaction night after night.

Though the blues contributed so much to the birth of rock, most of the mainline blues figures were largely ignored in this country in the late '50s as teens raced to embrace younger (generally) rock stars. Waters, for instance, found his U.S. audience so reduced that the singer-guitarist was so delighted by the response on a 1958 trip to England that he returned there regularly, including as a member of the "Festival" cast in 1963. He's seen on the new DVD performing his sexy signature tune, "Got My Mojo Working," from that tour. The collection also has clips of the Mississippi Delta native doing two additional numbers from a 1964 British TV special, "The Blues and Gospel Train."

While Waters tended to stand in one spot while singing, there was so much tension and energy in his music that he couldn't help but move his head and shoulders from side to side.

But Tharpe, the guitar-wielding, gospel-blues singer who appeared on the same TV special, rocked her entire body as she sang two numbers with such verve that it's a wonder she hasn't been given more attention over the years by rock fans.

In "Shout, Sister, Shout!," a marvelous new biography by Gayle F. Ward, the author describes Tharpe's bending of secular and spiritual traditions. "She was a woman of many guises," Wald writes. "She could play the sincere penitent, the deep spiritualist, the saintly believer, or she could play the humorous exhibitionist, the uninhibited flirt, the needy child."

Gayle said Tharpe's influence was especially strong on many of the young, gospel-minded rockabilly stars at Sun Records. Jerry Lee Lewis, for instance, even sang a Tharpe gospel number when auditioning for the label's owner, Sam Phillips.

Howlin' Wolf, another Mississippi native, was as riveting as Tharpe in two "Festival" numbers with a band that included bassist Willie Dixon and pianist Hubert Sumlin.

While those performances are enough to make new "Festival" edition a treat, the DVD — released in association with Reelin' in the Years Productions and Hip-O Records — also includes tunes by Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Turner. Highlights of earlier editions include John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker on Volume 1, Victoria Spivey's version of "Black Snake Blues" on Volume 2 and Big Mama Thornton and Waters again on Volume 3. Treasures all.

Backtracking, a biweekly feature, highlights CD reissues and other historical pop music items.

 

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