Product Description
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Mississippi Hill Country Blues Guitar offers a look into the
Hill Country technique byway of songs from legendary artists Fred
McDowell, R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Junior Kimbrough,
Rosa Lee Hill and Ranie Burnette. For this lesson Tom Feldmann
has compiled a grouping of songs that highlight the
individualistic traits of each artist and also gives a
well-rounded grasp of the genre as a whole. Though many of these
artists played slide guitar, Feldmann focuses solely on their
non-slide arrangements in Open G, Standard, Open D and Crossnote
tunings. Hypnotic grooves, steady guitar riffs, and few chord
changes are the trademark of Mississippi Hill Country Blues and
this lesson hands you the keys to some of the greatest examples.
A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the
DVD. In addition the original s of all the tunes are
included. 117 minutes. DVD is region 0, playable worldwide. 117
minutes Titles included: Black Cat (Jessie Mae Hemphill)
Dough Roller Blues (Ranie Burnette) That's Alright (Fred
McDowell) Poor Black Mattie (R.L. Burnside) Jumper Hanging Out On
The Line (R.L. Burnside) Meet Me In The City (Junior Kimbrough)
Standing In The Doorway Crying (Jessie Mae Hemphill) I'm Crazy
About You Baby (Fred McDowell) Count The Days Until I'm Gone
(Rosa Lee Hill)
Review
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Mississippi Hill Country Blues Guitar is actually codename for
Groove 101, Tom Feldmann's c course on the highly potent
strain of drone-and-moan grown amongst the kudzu, up north of the
Delta. Riff riders from the Black Stripes to the North
Mississippi Allstars were spawned from this heavily rhythmic
stock. Yet six of the original architects for the region's guitar
trances are the honored role models here. Heroes who shook 'em on
down at backwoods house parties, like Fred McDowell and his local
competitor, Ranie Burnette. And Jessie Mae Hemphill, Queen of the
Hill Country, who, with aunt Rosa Lee Hill, was part of the
Hemphill clan, Mississippi fife-and-drum royalty. Of the nine
grooves that Feldmann works out, none rely on use of a slide for
their hypnosis. A thwack-happy thumb, an unwound third string,
the steady pump of your foot? Yes. But no slide, this time. Here,
life gets stripped down to the utmost basics of an elastic chord
(or two) and an almighty riff that gets ridden for all it's
worth. Dough Roller Blues is Burnette's snaky hybrid of Roll and
Tumble, just as McDowell's That's Alright is John Lee Hooker's
Hobo Blues. As a twist, Count the Days Until I'm Gone delivers
its gut punch in crossnote tuning. And for your dancing pleasure,
R.L. Burnside's Jumper Hanging Out on the Line and the incredibly
percussive Poor Black Mattie share long histories of quaking juke
joint floorboards around Marshall County, just as the sloshing
motion of Meet Me in the City did its share of moving bodies
inside Junior Kimbrough's joint. Prepare to shake the shack.
--Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag
Often described as a more 'primitive' form of blues music than
its Delta cousin, Hill Country Blues is vocal-driven dance music
built on hypnotic grooves and steady, repeated guitar licks. This
117-minute DVD provides a great introduction to both the regional
style and to the techniques required to play authentic versions
of songs by Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ranie Burnette, Fred McDowell,
RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Rosa Lee Hill.
Focusing solely on non-slide songs, Feldman's guitar (equipped
with a 20-gauge plain steel unwound third string for
authenticity, guitar geeks!) unlocks the workings of open G, open
D and cross-note (open minor key) tunings, as well as some
unusual stuff in standard. He is, of course, a superlative guitar
player, but Feldman's also a convincing singer on material like
RL Burnside's Jumper Hanging Out On The Line, which enables him
to impart the feel as well as the technique for this material.
With all the usual Guitar Workshop split-screen camera work, PDF
tabs and bonus audio tracks of the originals, this DVD should
supply any solo guitarist with the necessary chops to set the
house a-qua kin' and your ass a-shakin'. --Steve Hunt/fRoots