look: Blues Legends - Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson (Live in Europe) - Reelin' in the Years Productions, 2004 - BUY

buy:

It just can't get much better than this. Vintage footage of two of Blues music's legends recorded live in Europe. Despite the age of the material, it's wonderfully clear and the audio is nothing short of excellent. This DVD is a compilation of material from the years 1960-1965 at the Jazz Prisma, American Folk Blues, and the Newport Jazz festivals, plus a short filmed in Sweden. It features not only Slim and Williamson, but Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Bill Stepney, James Cotton, Otis Spann, Mae Mercer, Willie Dixon, and T-Bone Walker just to name a few.

Featuring the songs, The Blues is Everywhere, All By Myself, My Gal Keeps Me Crying, Matt's Guitar Boogie, and I'm Lost Without You, Memphis Slim drives home the fact that he earned his place in the Hall of Fame of Blues musicians.

Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) has also earned a place alongside Memphis Slim as one of the influential Blues musicians in history. Here we see Sonny at his best armed with his stinging harp and stand alone vocals. Some of his songs here are I'm a Lonely Man, JFK Blues, It's Raining Outside, Your Funeral and My Trial, Bye Bye Bird and others.

Also included is an 11 page booklet with each man's history with still photography plus four bonus tracks with Sonny Boy backing Mae Mercer on Careless Love and three tracks of Otis Spann performing Boogie Woogie Blues, Slow Sweet Blues and St. Louis Blues.

DVD's like these should be required viewing for everyone, but especially the younger generation so they can see where the Rap & Hip Hop they listen to came from. Thanks to products like these we can see many performers that we'd otherwise never have a chance to see and enjoy in the comfort of our homes.

(©) 2006, Tim Richards
BluesSource.com