Legends of Bottleneck Blues Guitar – Various

Featuring: Son House, Johnny Shines, Fred McDowell, Jesse Fuller, Furry Lewis & Mance Lipscomb

“This excellent video focuses primarily on Mississippi Delta bottleneck blues guitarists, and within that framework illustrates several different playing styles… The highlights of the video are the two numbers by Son House. ‘Levee Camp Moan’ is preceded by a short but hilarious lecture from House about the dangerous business of love. Both this clip and his ‘Death Letter Blues’ typify a Son House live performance — he begins each song with a soft-spoken introduction, then takes a deep breath, hunches over the guitar, and explodes into sound and fury. At the end of each song he seems to collapse with exhaustion.For many of today’s younger blues fans, these videos offer the only chance to see these great artists perform the songs they’re best remembered for. Highly recommended.”

Legends Of Bottleneck Blues Guitar presents rare and historical recordings from 1965-1970 of some of the greatest exponents of this blues technique. Black bottleneck guitar styles were probably initially inspired by lap-style Hawaiian slide guitar which enjoyed immense popularity shortly after its inception in the mid-1890s. By 1903, it was already in vogue in Mississippi (and probably elsewhere) according to testimony from W. C. Handy, Gus Cannon and others. Although particularly popular in Mississippi and Louisiana, bottleneck styles could be found the length and breadth of the rural South.

While there were similarities amongst guitarists in some locales, there was no preponderant style or approach other than the ability and imagination of the guitarist employing a slide technique. The musicians presented in this video are amongst the greatest exponents of slide blues guitar who ever lived and are ample testimony to the superb variety available in this style.

Titles include: Son House: Death Letter Blues, Levee Camp Moan · Johnny Shines: Ramblin’, Tell Me Mama, Mr. Tom Green’s Farm · Fred McDowell: Louise, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, I Heard Somebody Call, Break “Em On Down, My Babe · Jesse Fuller: Hark from the Tomb, I’m Glad Salvation’s Free, John Henry Furry Lewis Brownsville Blues · Mance Lipscomb: Motherless Children Have a Hard Time.