Customer Reviews

Skip James/Howlin' Wolf/Son House/Bukka White/Rev. Pearly Brown: Devil Got My Woman

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where else can you find Skip James and Son House in the same place? Well, this is one of two DVDs that I know of. And where else can you see Son House dance?! No place that I know of. Both of these artists give totally inspired performances. Son House's eyes roll back in his head and he swings his arm when he plays. It's almost as powerful to just watch him--with the sound off. Howlin' Wolf chastises Son House, telling him that he hasn't done anything with his life when Son interrupts his performance (someone gave him whiskey...). Everything is great, although the lighting could bear to be a bit better. Also, if you plan on using this DVD to learn stuff on guitar, you'd be better off getting the Blues Festival vol. Three DVD. The lighting is better and they give some pretty good close-ups of Skip.

Right off the bat, I have to say that the only reason why I didn't give this dvd five stars, is because an hour just doesn't feel long enough: When presented with such astounding footage of these amazing and unique artists, one can only wish for more. The film shows these performers in a very relaxed environment (a mock juke-joint setup), allowing for moments which I never could have imagined seeing: a drunk Son House dancing (among others) to Bukka White! Having rows with Howlin' Wolf! Skip James playing three outstanding songs to an audience including Bukka White and Howlin' Wolf! I feel priviledged as a young fan of early country blues to have some exposure to this kind of footage, footage which is so real and visceral, and yet seems to have been beamed down from outer space. Highly recommended

Before one starts to be critical about the technical expertise of this documentary, one needs to remember that this was filmed in 1966. All performers were at their peak of their careers and were natural and unpretentious while being filmed. Howlin Wolf and Son House had an interesting dialoge about Howlin's definition of the blues. I am pleased with the performances, the camera is blocked by a dancer or two, but only briefly. If you are a real fan of Son House, Bukka White and Howlin Wolf, you will not be dissapointed.

The Video & Audio in this video are awesome. Blues lovers will be grateful, that people had the insight in 1966 to catch some of the music's legends on video. The backdrop of a few of Blues legends perfoming and talking to each other in a small juke joint provides the ultimate stage. Where else could you see Howlin Wolf talking trash to Blues legend Son House. I wish the video was 4 hours long,but I'm eternally grateful for length of video I received. A must own for any Blues lover.

This is pretty good. But the cover has a picture of Son House, and he only performs one song, and not quite in its entirety! You do get to see him dance for a minute and hear him off screen talking to Howling Wolf. The cover should have had Howling Wolf on it instead of Son House, so it wouldn't be misleading. I like Howling Wolf, but I bought this specifically to see footage of Son House. But ofcourse Wolf is good so I gave it 4 stars.
And the tiny bit of footage of Son House is AWESOME, I wish it'd had much much more of him.

I own the VHS tape version of this video. Being a fan of both old blues and gospel music, I love this video regardless of any technical imperfections or complaints about how many minutes each performer is featured in the video. I would say it's wonderful that we have ANY video of the famous performers shown and practically a miracle that we also have footage of Georgia's Rev Pearly Brown. I also recommend the Arhoolie CD of Rev Brown.

I have spent some considerable effort in this space reviewing various trends in the blues tradition, including both the country blues and the later electrified urban sound most closely associated with places like Memphis and Chicago. As is fairly well known country blues got its start down in the South during the early part of the 20th century (if not earlier) as a way for blacks (mainly) to cope with the dreaded, deadly work on the plantations (picking that hard to pick cotton). The electric blues really came of age in the post World War I period and later when there was a massive black migration out of the south in search of the, now disappearing, industrial jobs up north (and to get out from under old Jim Crow racial segregation). In this volume (and similarly in a couple of other previously reviewed volumes in this series) Stefan Grossman, the renowned guitar teacher and performer in his own right, has taken old film clips and segments from an Alan Lomax experiment at the Newport Folk Festival of putting exemplars of both traditions together under one roof and has produced an hour of classic performances by some masters of the genre. Wow.

Let me set the stage on this one to give you a small, small sense of what an historic blues cultural occasion this was. Alan Lomax, the famous musicologist and folk performer, put the then recently rediscovered Skip James and Son House and the already well known and powerful voice of Howlin' Wolf together under one roof. Oh yes, and then added Bukka White and the Reverend Pearly Brown to the mix. The motif: an attempt to recreate an old fashioned "juke joint'" from back in the days on a Down South rural Saturday night complete with dancing and plenty of liquor. Watch out.

Needless to say anyone even vaguely familiar with the long and storied history of the early blues knows that this was indeed an historic, and fleeting, occasion. 1966 might have been one of the few years that such an event could have been put together as the old country blues singers were starting to past from the scene. But as fate would have it we got one last chance to look at these five performers going head to head, everyone one way or another a legend. With the partial exception of the Reverend Pearly Brown and his religiously- oriented country blues done in the shout and response style of the old Baptist churches reflecting the tradition made popular by the Reverend Blind Willie Johnson, all the other performers have rated plenty of ink in this space as members of one or another branch of the blues pantheon.

A few of the highlights. Skip James' rendition of his classic "I'd Rather Be The Devil That Be That Woman's Man" (also known by the title of this documentary "Devil Got My Woman"). I have gotten more mileage out of my use of that title in various political commentaries in this space than I deserve. Thanks, Skip. Son House brought out his classic "Death Letter Blues" that I always go crazy over. Howlin' Wolf is, well, Howlin' Wolf as he almost inhales the harmonica on "How Many More Years" and does an incredible cover of the old Robert Johnson/Elmore James song "Dust My Broom". Reverend Brown does a very soulful rendition of the tradtional religious blues classic "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning".

So who is left? Well Bukka White, of course. Bukka is a recent addition to my personal blues pantheon and I have spend some effort praising his work, especially his smoking guitar work on that old National Steel guitar that he makes hum. Hell, I would have walked to Mississippi to hear that. This documentary has a separate songs section so that one can replay any song that one wants to without having to replay the whole film (although I did that as well). So who got replayed? Yes Bukka on "100 Men" (with Howlin' Wolf doing the response and some unknown washboard player as backup). Yes indeed, this was the blues shootout to end all shootouts. If you want to know what it was like to see men play the blues for keeps look here.